Taken
by Kippling Croft
Summary: Temperance has gone missing no one knows who's taken her. Now its a race against time. Will they find her alive? Not very good at summaries, please R&R. Chapter 16 now up. complete
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimers: I do not own Bones or any of its characters, and I am not making any money on this.

All the original characters are my though such as Tucker James, Bad guy ( I don't have a name for him yet), Linda Prat, Jodee Wright, and so on. So if you don't recognize them then they are probably one of mine.

Author: Kippling Croft

Title: Taken

Pairing: None Pre-Booth/Brennan

Warnings: Some violence nothing too graphic though.

Rating: T

Spoilers: None

(AN) This is my first fan-fic ever so I do not know how good...or bad this story will be, so please read it and tell me what you think. Please no flames.

'_Thought'_

"talking"

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**Chapter one**

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**3:00 A.M. Sunday **

**Medico-Legal lab**

**The Jeffersonian** **Institute**

Dr. Temperance Brennan had just finished identifying the bones of yet anther world war two soldier this one was Lt. Lee Bandis of the US Navy age: 22. It was sad to know how young this soldier was when he died.

With a sigh Temperance glanced at her watch and was surprised to see how late it was, then she sighed again and made a face she was hungry and didn't think Wong Foo's would be open at three A.M. even if it was the weekend. '_Great now it's fast food or whatever I can find at home_.' Tempe thought as she went to get her back pack like bag and car keys.

She looked around her lab one last time before she left then walked out the door and past the young security guard who called out "Goodnight Dr. Brennan see you tomorrow."

Tempe stopped and looked at him confused "Tomorrow?"

"Yeah, it's Sunday morning." He said pointing to his watch "So I guess I should say good morning. Hey, would you like me to walk you, to your car Dr. Brennan? It is pretty late."

She shook her head no and smiled at him "Good bye Tucker."

She liked Tucker. He was helpful and funny. He and Angela had gone out a couple times last year. Tempe thinks that's why he is always looking out for her and Angela.

She walked to her parking spot only to find it empty. '_Oh yeah_.' She remembered earlier when she came to work that there was a small red motorcycle in her spot, so she had, had to park all the way in section C, not far enough away you had to use the shuttle but it was still quite a long walk. It was dark, but the parking lot was well lit. So Tempe felt it was safe enough to walk it alone. Besides the Jeffersonian had good security.

By the time Brennan was half way to her car, she began to feel uneasy as if someone was watching her. She had felt like this a lot the last few days but every time she would look around. She could not see anyone.

She may not be able to read people very well, but Tempe could always trust her instincts to tell her when she was in danger and right now they were telling her to watch out.

Tempe looked around the parking lot, she now noticed it was almost completely empty, so she desided to jog the rest of the way to her car which was closer to her then the building.

When Tempe finally reached her car, feeling just a little anxious as she scanned the area, and found that someone had let the air out of her front tire. This was the first time she truly wished she did not have a convertible.

Temperance heard something behind her and spun around to see what it was, but just as before she couldn't see anyone. '_This is crazy,_ _your just being paranoid. It was just a prank or maybe a leak_. _I'll just call Tucker._' Tempe thought as she reached for her cell phone, getting angry with herself for being so unsettled.

Just then someone grabbed her from behind and knocked the cell phone out of her hand, She heard it crack and then saw it slid under her car so even if it some how still worked she would not be able to reach it.

Tempe tried to fight back, but he had his arms around her, pinning her hands to her chest, she knew even if she were to scream for help no one would be able hear her over the sounds of the city, but she was never one to give up easily. She jumped and kicked trying to brake loose, but he was just too strong for her. She needed to find some other way to get free.

She could tell he was not much taller then herself. '_Maybe I can make him lose his balance' _Tempe thought. So she planted her feet on the ground and pushed against the man as hard as she could, making him fall on her car. Tempe heard the man grunt and curse in pain, then she felt him lose his grip.

Temperance wasted no time running away, but almost immediately he pushed away from the car and was able to grab the thick strap of her beg that was slung over her head and shoulder. And jerked it back, making her lose her balance and fall. Tempe was so surprised by this she had no time to react before she hit her head on the curb just in front of her car, knocking her out cold.

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So what did you think. Was Temperance out of character? Please tell me.

Thank you for reading this. Sorry if this was a little short.

Kippling Croft


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimers: Look at chapter one

(A/N) Thank you all so much for your reviews. I read them and they give me this warm fuzzy feeling inside. And a special thanks to Drew A.K.A. RaneyJayne (I think that is how she spells it) and to my sister Jo A.K.A. Cole McMitchelle.

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**Chapter two**

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**5:27 A.M. Sunday **

**Location: Unknown **

Temperance slowly started to wake up when a red light flashed in her face. Her left side hurt, something hard was digging into her ribs and shoulder she tried to move to get more comfortable but stopped when the action sent a shooting pain to the right side of her head and then it started to pound. When she went to touch her head to see what was wrong, she found that she couldn't, still groggy and confused, she tried again this time she tugged harder but still could not move.

Now she was wide awake, Tempe's eyes shot open. Only to find that it was pitch black, her heart started to beat faster which made her head pound all the more. With a rush she remembered everything that had happened in the parking lot. '_I'm being kidnaped!_' She started to hyperventilate. '_Stop it! Calm down_.' Tempe told herself_. 'Panicking will not help. Now think, be smart and find a way out.' _Tempe took a couple deep breaths to help slow her racing heart.

Now that she had composed herself, she needed to see what she knew about the situation and come up with a plan. But first what she needed to do was untie herself.

Tempe could tell she was in the trunk of a car, and that it was moving but she had no way of knowing where the man was taking her.

She tugged and pulled on the rope trying to loosen the knots for what seemed like forever until she was finally free. She rubbed her now raw and bleeding wrists. Then touched the side of her head. There was a knot just above her right temple and some dried blood in her hair and on the side of her face.

Tempe just got her feet untied when she felt the car slow and a red light flood the small area, blinding her for a moment, when she could see again she looked around and saw what had been digging into her side, it was her bag. Brennan glanced at her watch and was surprised to see that it was 5:56 A.M. Had it only been a mere three hours ago that she had been in her lab trying to think of something to eat.

Tempe knew the break light would go off soon so she grabbed the two small lengths of rope that she had just freed herself of and anything else she could find in the trunk of use to put in her bag. The car started to speed up and the light went out. Now all Tempe could do was listen, wait and plan her next move.

Tempe had heard several cars pass but since he turned off what she assumed was the highway she hadn't heard any. So she figured they were headed somewhere secluded. And that was not a good thing.

Tempe didn't think anyone would miss her until Monday morning. She didn't have many friends, and no family. Angela was out of town visiting her father, Hodgins was with his girlfriend, Zach...well she didn't know what Zach was doing, she didn't spend much time with him outside the lab, and Booth, he wouldn't miss her until he needed something from her. And what were the odds that he would need her before Monday. "All most none. That's what." She grumbled bitterly to herself. She was on her own.

It was so quiet now, that it startled her when she heard some music begin to play. It wasn't the soothing kind of music you would listen to while you took a bath it was the kind of music you heard just before something bad was going to happen in those old black and white horror movies. This did not help her headache. To make matters worse, Tempe's legs were starting to cramp from being in such a small space, unable to move.

Tempe felt the car stop. That made her tense up. Then she heard the motor turn off, and the car door open. Tempe grabbed her bag and held it to her chest ready to use to as a weapon. She could hear footsteps coming around to the back.

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He just could not wait to touch her, to hold her. He was going to make the pretty doctor his. She belonged to him now. And no one was going to take her away from him, not ever. She would see he would make her see. Just like all the others. And if she didn't well...

The man opened the trunk and Temperance swung her bag as hard as she could, knocking the man down. He had not been prepared for her to fight back. He had thought she would still be tied up.

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Tempe jumped out of the trunk still clutching the bag. She tried to run but her legs just would not work for her and she stumbled. The man now recovered from being hit reached out and caught her by the ankle causing her to trip. Tempe kicked him in the face, blooding his nose. But before she could get away, he tackled her from behind trying to pin her as he had earlier. This time though Tempe was ready for him and rammed her right elbow into his ribs then spun around and punched him in the face with her left.

While he was still bent over clutching his side, she roundhouse kicked him sending her attacker to the ground. He yelled at her to come back but she ignored him, she snatched up her bag and ran.

From what Brennan could tell she was in the parking lot of what looked to be an old abandoned warehouse surrounded by woods with only a one lane road out. It was dawn so there was not a whole lot of light. She felt her best bet would be to head for the tree line and hide.

She didn't see the man pull a gun from the back of his jeans.

She didn't see him aim the gun at her and fire.

Tempe heard a loud pop, then felt a searing pain slam into her left side just below her rib cage. She stumbled but regained balance and continued running though she was no longer moving very fast, But she would not stop, she could now hear him running behind her. But she refused to look back.

She was no longer on the paved lot when she finally fell. She was just a few feet away from the tree line, so close to her goal.

"You are mine! You belong to me." The man said though clenched teeth when he finally caught up with her.

Keeping her left arm tucked close to her injured side she tried to crawl away from him, but she didn't get very far before he was now standing over her.

Temperance turned and sat up facing him, while hiding the big rock she had in her right hand.

He knelt in front of Temperance, with the gun still pointed at her. With his free hand he reached out and ran his finger down the side of her face. Repulsed she jerked away from his touch.

"Don't you see? I love you. We belong together." He said softly.

Tempe held her head up defiantly looking him directly in the face as she calmly said "No, I don't see."

Tempe saw his brown eyes flash with anger, just before he grabbed her by the throat and pushed her to the ground. She gave a little yelp of pain.

"Why you rotten little bit..." He was cut off when Brennan struck him in the head with the rock she had hid in her hand, she had hit him solidly, but still not quite hard enough to knock him out.

The man was moaning and holding his head when Tempe pushed him away from her. She stood swaying back and forth for a moment feeling a little light-headed, when the feeling passed she picked up her bag and glanced down at the man, He was in his mid to late 30's had short light brown hair, light brown eyes, in good shape and very strong. She couldn't see the gun, but she knew he still had it.

She also knew she would never be able to reach his car before he recovered. He was already starting to come around, and even if she could get to the car, he had the keys. So she once again headed for the woods hoping she would be able to find some place to hide where he could not find her.

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Please review and tell me what you think.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimers: See chapter one

(A/N) I'm from the west coast and have never been back east so I have no idea what Virginia looks like or if there are woods any where close to DC so for the sake of my story I say there are. So forgive me if this is grossly inaccurate. Also there will be a few towns and places that are completely fictional. Again thank you for all your reviews. And for you who asked why she did just go back and hit him again, well I will clear that up in future chapters.

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**Chapter Three**

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**6:30 P.M. Sunday**

**Wong foo's**

Sid Shapiro the owner of Wong foo's watched his friend, FBI agent Seeley Booth say good bye to his son, Parker. He had known Booth for close to ten years now, and kind of saw him as a little brother. He really hated it when Rebecca, Booth's ex girlfriend would not let his friend see his own son. Booth has all ways had to fight her in order to see Parker. Rebecca hated Booth and has done everything in her power to see to it that she would never have to see him again.

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With one last wave good bye to his son, Seeley turned and walked over to the bar and sat down. "So you want something to eat?" Sid asked.

"I hate having to say good bye to him, I never know when I will get to see him again." Booth turned to Sid who was looking at with sympathy.

"Sorry. Yeah I'll have something." Like always Booth left it up to Sid to decide what that 'something' would be.

Sid went to get the food, leaving Booth alone to sit there and replay his last fight with Rebecca she made it so hard for him to be a part of Parker's life.

Booth hated to fight, he had to deal with difficult and sometimes violent people almost every day in his line of work, so he earnestly sought for things to go smoothly in his personal life. That's probably why he was with Tessa, they rarely ever even argued. And Sid, he's an easy-going guy. Even the Squint Squad was OK. Though Booth would never admit that to anyone..ever. Angela's cute and fun, Hodgins is cool if a little paranoid, and Zach's...well Zach's just weird, but in good way.

And then there's Bones. Now it was different with her even though they argued a lot and some times annoyed each other, he knew he could really count on her to have his back, besides it was fun to tease her and see her get all bent out of shape.

Seeley looked at his watch than over at the entrance. '_She should have been here fifteen minutes ago.' _Booth thought asSid walked up to him with his food and a cold beer. "You waiting for someone?" Sid asked, as he leaned on the bar.

"Yeah, Tessa." Sid made a face, But said nothing.

Booth saw the look and sighed "You don't like her very much do you?"

"She's a lawyer." Sid said as if that explained everything.

"A corporate lawyer. What could you possibly, have ageist a corporate lawyer?"

"It doesn't matter if a lawyer is corporate or not, a lawyer is a lawyer."

"Why do I get the feeling that, that's not the only reason you dislike her?" Booth looked at Sid with a rased eye brow.

When Sid didn't say any thing Booth continued. "I don't see why, She's a nice person, easy to get along with, funny, let's me do my own thing..."

"Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?" Sid asked pointedly.

"What? I don't kno..." Booth trailed off as he heard the front door open, then glanced over to the entrance just in time to see Tessa walk in. Booth greeted her with kiss and a smile. He still didn't know what Sid meant by what he had said but guessed he would figure it out later.

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**7:00P.M. Sunday**

**Location: Unknown**

Temperance had been running and hiding all day. When she had first gotten away from him she had ran until she fell, she had known she could go no further and looked around to find a place to hide. And had found one not too far away in a fallen tree that had bushes all around it. She hid there for most of the morning.

She had been pretty numb up till than. But that changed soon after she had settled into her hiding place. It was there that she had gotten to see how badly she was injured. She took off her shirt and jacket, than pulled up her tank top and looked at her bullet wound it was still bleeding but not as much as before. Tempe was relieved to see that it was just a flesh wound, although she would need to watch out for too much bleeding and infection.

She had a small first aid kit in her bag and had use it to clean and dressed the wounds on her wrists, head and side, she also found a half empty bottle of water and took some aspirin hoping that it might help prevent infection and ease some of the pain. Unfortunately her first-aid kit was now almost empty.

After a few hours of waiting and listening for the man and not hearing any thing she felt it was safe enough to look for a more secure hiding place. She had drunk almost all of her water and would need to find more also.

It was now getting dark but Tempe had finally found the prefect place to hide. It was a cave like recess half way up a fairly large hill. The niche had bushes and tree growing over and around, and because of the way the bushes grew it enabled her to see if anyone was coming while still being completely hidden. It was reasonably large inside about six feet deep by six feet wide but only about four feet tall. It was also not too, far from a small creek.

Tempe settled in her new little heaven. She looked through her bag to see what else was in there that she could use, she found some matches, the two pieces of rope, her first-aid kit, a note pad and pen, about three or four granola bars, a fruit cup, a hair clip, a pair of socks, a now full water bottle thanks to the creek, two small pocket knives, six paper clips, a Tic Tac and a few other things that she had grabbed from in the trunk.

Tempe sighed "Well it's better then nothing." She picked up her first-aid kit to see what she still had left in it, two gauze pads, half a roll medical tape, a small bottle of aspirin, Box of band-Aids, scissors, and nontoxic super glue. It worried her that she didn't have more gauze pads, she would need to change the ones on her side soon she had already bled through them.

When Tempe change her bandages, she looked at her wound and was relieved to see that it didn't look infected, she then put on the last two gauze pads and taped them down. Tempe had been running on adrenalin and determination all day but now she was exhausted and weak from her injuries, so she closed her eyes and leaned back, ageist the side of the niche to rest.

When Tempe opened her eyes again, it was pitch black, she was shivering and felt worse that ever. She suspected the shivering had more to do with the pain and trauma her body had gone through then the actual temperature.

Tempe groaned in pain when she moved to hit the light on her watch, she was stunned to see that it was just a little before four A.M. nearly nine hours since she was last awake.

She sat up but was overcome with a wave of dizziness and nausea, Tempe closed her eyes and took a couple deep breaths to help her, feel better. When she felt like she could move again without being sick she reached for her bag and pulled out a granola bar, she knew she should eat something. She hadn't eaten anything for close to thirty-six hours, but just the thought of food made her stomach roll. '_You've got to eat_ _or you won't survive._' Tempe told herself so she opened the foil around the bar and choked it down, hoping that she would not be sick. When she was finished with the bar, she took a drink of water to help wash it down.

She hugged her arms around herself trying to get warm. It was late spring and even though it was warm during the day it really cooled down at night. As Tempe leaned back to rest, she wished for the sun to come up soon so she could get warm. She was shivering so badly now that she could not get her body to relax. Tempe was so miserable. "Please let somebody have found my car and called the police...called Booth." Tempe begged. "Please, please let them be looking for me." Tempe pulled her jacket closed and waited for sleep to come.

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I hope this was not too long or too boring.

Please tell me what you think.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

(A/N) Just in case you didn't all the names. Dr. Jack Hodgins, Angela Montenegro, Zach Addy, Dr. Daniel Goodman. Thank you for all your feedback, it makes me want to write more. Sorry I have not updated in so long but my computer is on life support and will need a mother board transplant before it will work again. So updates might be a little slow for awhile.

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**Chapter Four**

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**10:08 A.M. Monday**

**Medico-Legal Lab**

**Jeffersonian Institute**

Booth walked into the lab looking as professional as ever in his dark blue suit and bright white shirt under his suit coat. He walked up the stairs to the main area where all the Lab equipment was.

Booth scanned the area and saw Hodgins sitting in front of a computer, with Zach standing behind him. Hodgins was pointing at the monitor. "See it's right there. Now pay up." Zach leaned over Hodgins shoulder to get a closer look at, god knows what, on the computer screen then he stood up clearly unhappy with what he was seeing and said "OK, fine. I say double or nothing that it originated there."

"You're on." With that Hodgins began typing something on the keyboard in order to find whatever information he needed to settle the bet.

Booth just rolling his eyes and walked on by them. He needed to find Bones, he wanted her to look at some old X-rays from a case he was working on. When he didn't find her in the lab, he decided to go to her office. As he made his way over there, he glanced toward her office, he could now see that door was open and that someone was inside. '_Ahh There you are Bones_.'

Once Booth reached the office, he saw that it was Angela, and not Bones that he had seen. He walked into the office and was about to ask Angela if she knew where Bones was when he realized she was on the phone, so he stepped back, just outside the door in order to give her some privacy. As he stood there, he noticed that Angela was not talking just holding the phone to her ear as if waiting for someone to pick up, she was starting to get frustrated, she kept shifting from one foot to the other and checking her watch.

Finally Angela pulled the phone away from her head and jabbed the end button on her cell phone. She then with a deep sigh she ran her fingers through her hair. Angela had her back to Booth and had not noticed him, So when Booth cleared his throat to get her attention, she jumped and whirled around to see who was behind her. Booth smiled at her sheepishly. "Sorry I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine." She said distractedly, Waving her hand in front of her face.

Booth had the feeling something was not quite right, and was about to say something about it when Angela spoke up "What are you doing here, Is there a new case?"

"Yeah there is. Is Bones here?" When he mentioned, Bones Angela got this look on her face that he could not quite name. Booth got this sinking feeling in his gut that told him, he wasn't going to like what Angela had to say.

Angela took a deep breath before she answered him. "She's not here. She's almost two hours late for work. I'm really starting to get worried."

"Well maybe she just slept in. Have you called her yet?"

Angela gave him this 'Well duh' look "Yes. And all I keep getting is her voice mail or her answering machine when I call her home. Even if she had slept in, the phone would have woke her, and she would have picked it up. This isn't like her."

Angela abruptly jumped to attention as if something had just occurred to her. Brushing past Booth, she quickly rushed out the door and headed straight for her office. Booth was a little stunned by her sudden action but he recovered and turned to follow her.

"Hey what are you doing?" Booth called after her.

When Booth had caught up with her, she had already gotten her purse from her desk drawer and was tearing through it trying to find her car keys.

Booth repeated his question when she did not reply, "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to Tempe's place."Angela finally answered, still looking for her keys.

Booth could see that her movements were jerky and that she was a little agitated. He didn't think it would be a good idea for her to drive right now. "Why don't I go with you? We could take my car that way you could try and get a hold of Bones on the phone while I drive." He said as he was leading Angela out the door of her office, not really give her a choice.

"Ok. That's a good idea"

They were making their way out when Booth spotted Zach sitting at a desk looking through some papers. Booth stopped Angela and turned to look at the young man. "Hey Zach, have you heard from Bones this morning?"

"No. I..."

"Hi Booth. You have a new case for us?" Hodgins said as he came from somewhere behind Booth and Angela.

"Have you heard from Bones this morning?" Booth asked Hodgins instead of answering him.

"No." He looked a little puzzled, "You mean she's not here yet? That's not like her."

"Are you two going some were?" inquired Zach after noticing that Angela was holding her purse.

"Yeah. We're headed over to Brennan's to see if she's there."

"Have you tried calling her?"Hodgins asked

"Of course I tried calling, do you thi..."

"Come on we need to go." Booth cut in before Angela started to yell. He then put his hand on her shoulder maneuvering her toward the exit. Booth looked back at Hodgins and Zach who were just standing there stunned they had been taken aback by Angela's sharp tone and short temper.

"If ether of you hears from Bones, call me. You got my cell number?" Zach nodded his head yes. With that settled Booth and Angela made their way to his car.

As soon as they were in Booth's SUV, Angela pulled out her cell phone and once more called Brennan's home phone it rang five times before she heard Tempe's voice _"_You have reached Dr. Temperance Brennan Please leave a short message after the tone_. Beep_" While Angela was on the phone she had been looking out the window scanning the parking lot that was now packed with vehicles of all shapes and sizes, "Hi Sweety It's me, again, were are you? I've been..." Angela trailed off and dropped the phone to her lap. "Stop the car!" she cried.

Booth slammed on the brakes and jerked his head around to look at Angela.

"What? What is it?"She was trying to un seatbelt herself and open the door at the same time. Booth grabbed her arm to stop her from getting out, and to get her attention "What are you doing?"

"That's Tempe's car." She said, pointing to a silver convertible three spaces up from them. Booth saw the vehicle she saw referring to, and he looked at the license plat, it was Brennan's car all right. _'So if her car is here, where in the hell, is Bones?' _Booth thought. He was getting that sinking feeling in his gut again.

Booth pulled up right behind the car and got out, he walked around the front of his SUV and stood next to Angela. Booth could hear this little buzzing noise. "You hear that?"

"Hear what?" Angela looked at him confused.

Booth stepped closer to Brennan's car to investigate where the sound was coming from. He cocked his head to the side in order to hear better, "I think it's coming from under the car." Booth knelt next to the rear bumper to see under the car. He now knew where the sound was coming from. It was a cell phone. It appeared to be broken, the buzzing he had heard must have been the phone trying to ring. While he was down there he noticed that the front tire was flat.

Meanwhile Angela had spotted something near the front of the car on the driver's side, and had decided to walk over there to get a closer look. Booth was just about to tell Angela what he had found when he heard her gasp "Oh god, oh god." Booth jumped to his feet and rushed over to Angela. "What's the matter?" he demanded, but Angela wouldn't answer him she just stood there as if in shock with her eyes' glued to this rust colored spot on the curb. Booth knelt next to the curb and touched the spot with his finger.

"That's not...um that's not..."

"Blood, It's blood" he stated with certainty.

"This is really bad, isn't it?" Angela asked so softly that Booth almost didn't hear her.

Booth looked up at her and held her gaze for a moment then nodded his head. Angela's face fell the instant he confirmed her fears. Booth could tell she had been hoping that he would've said that this was nothing that there was a simple explanation for all of this and that her best friend was just fine. He wished he could have.

Booth grabbed his cell phone and punch in a familiar number, as he waited someone to pick up on the other end, Booth took in the whole scene before him and for the first time noticed that there was a huge dent in the driver side door. His heart sank when he thought of what all these clues added up to.

Finally someone answered. "This is special agent Seeley Booth. I need to report an abduction of a Dr. Temperance Brennan. I'll need a forensic team at the Jeffersonian parking lot section C."

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Please tell me what you think.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: See chapter one

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**Chapter five**

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**11:40 A.M. Monday**

**Jeffersonian **

**Parking lot section C**

The parking lot was now buzzing with Police, FBI, Forensic personnel, and curious on lookers. Even the press had arrived. It was big news that a forensic anthropologist/famous author of an international number one best-selling book, had been kidnaped.

Booth was standing next to a police cruiser watching all the activity, he had been pretty much sidelined as soon as Cullen had found out that it was Brennan who was missing. Booth had argued with the FBI deputy director to have the lead in this investigation, but was told in no uncertain terms that this was going to be a high profile case and that he was too personally involved, and under no circumstances was he going to be the lead agent, that the case was going to be given to an agent Brad Penning. But Booth had at least gotten Cullen to agree to let him be part of the team investigating this case.

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Agent Penning walked past the throng of reporters. He hated to deal with the press. They almost always made his job much harder. How these people always found out about these types of cases - when the victim and /or the suspect were famous - so quickly was a mystery to him. As soon as he was in the cordoned of area he was surrounded by official personnel all of whom were demanding his attention.

While Penning was getting updated on the case by his fellow agents, he was keeping his eye on agent Booth, he knew that Booth had wanted to be the Agent in charge, and though you couldn't tell by looking at him, he knew Booth was less then pleased with how things worked out.

He had worked with Booth once before and they had made a good team, Booth was an excellent agent and Penning respected him.

When Penning was finally finished being briefed, he made his way over to Booth, who was just standing by the cruiser observing the organized chaos, with his face an unreadable mask. He wanted to test the waters so to speak, and see just how mad he was, and who or what was he mad at.

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Booth watch as the tall blond agent walked toward him. He really didn't want to talk to the man right now, it wasn't that he didn't like the guy, it wasn't even that he thought Penning couldn't handle the case, because Penning was more then capable, it had more to do with the situation and the fact that he had been pushed aside in favor of Penning.

"Agent Booth." Penning said in way of a hello.

"Agent Penning."

"Have you interviewed the co-workers?"

Booth let out a frustrated breath."Nope. I was told to, and I quote 'park it and stay out of the way.'"

"Cullen?"

"Cullen." Booth confirmed, With a ghost of a smile.

Now that the tension was broken Penning grinned and slapped Booth on the shoulder and said, "It's good to be working with you again, I would appreciate your help with the interviews."

"Sure."

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**12:00 P.M. Monday**

**Location: Unknown **

Tempe had just dozed off when she was startled awake by someone stepping on a twig. She looked out the bushes to see if it was the man or if it was someone who could help her. As the foot steps came closer, she scarcely dared to breathe. Finally a figure came into view at the base of the hill. It was the man.

Tempe stifled a gasp when she recognized her kidnaper. She watched him as he slowly made his way passed her and back into the woods. As soon as he was gone, she let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

She resented the fact that she was stuck there basically helpless because of her injuries, she found even the littlest of tasks exhausted her, she could never hope to hike out of there and find help. Temperance hated to feel helpless, weak, scared and most of all she hated that she was scared of _him_. But Tempe had only herself to blame for the situation she was in now. She thought back to the day before, she supposed herself to be six kinds of stupid for all the mistakes she had made.

Her first mistake had been not going back into the Jeffersonian, and have Tucker walk her to her car, if she had only gone back, she wouldn't be in this mess now. And well after that when she was in the trunk, Tempe had not one but two pocket knives in her bag that she could have used to get away, but she had completely forgotten about them. And the gun, she should have known that he would have a weapon of some kind, she should have been watching her back.

Then there was her biggest mistake yet, she had him this all could have been over, she had stunned him and all she had, had to do was hit him again and knock him out, but no she had been too rattled to think straight, too afraid of him to go near him again.

If Tempe had only knocked him out, she could've tied him up, he would've no longer been a threat, she could have searched him and gotten the gun and car keys, and who knows he could have even had a cell phone on him. On top of that she had run into the woods never thinking that it might no longer be a good idea to go there now that she was injured. She had, had so many opportunities to get away and she had blown them all.

At that last thought Tempe, in frustration slammed his fist on the ground, instantly regretting the action as it shot pain up her arm and to her side, she hugged her arms around herself and gently racked back and forth until the pain subsided. "Stupid, stupid, stupid." She muttered softly through her clenched teeth. She should've known better. '_Great now my headache is back.' _She thought.

As she was reaching for her bag to get some aspirin and water, a shadow passed in front of the entrance blocking her light for a moment, Tempe froze, afraid if she moved she would attract attention, the shadow passed once again. When she couldn't stand, not knowing what it was any longer she slowly turned her head to see what it was.

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Sorry for the cliffy. I really am not too fond of cliffhangers myself but this was the best place to end this chapter, so again sorry. Please review.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: See chapter one

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**Chapter six**

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**12:28 P.M. Monday**

**Location: Unknown**

Tempe's heart was racing as she tried to see out of the foliage, she slowly and quietly scooted closer to the entrance, ignoring the pain that the movement caused, to get a better look, but still she couldn't see anyone or anything. She held her breath and leaned forward straining to listen for any sign that there was someone out there, but all she could hear was her own heart beat.

After a minute or two of tense silence, she had all but convinced herself that she had just imagined the whole thing, that it was nothing more then a cloud passing in front of the Sun. She started to relax a little and sat up. Tempe silently let out a relieved sigh and gingerly touched the knot on the side of her head, it was pounding so painfully now that she was beginning to think she might be sick.

She was about to crawl back to her little makeshift bed of dirt and leaves to lie down, when suddenly the shadow passed once again in front of her little hideout. She instantly leaned forward to see what was out there, her eyes darted back and forth, searching down the side of the hill and the small clearing at the base of it, Then she heard it, a loud high pitched scream. Her head instantly shot up toward the sound, just as the shadow passed. _'An eagle, it was just an eagle.' _Tempe thought with a relieved laugh, as she watched the huge bird fly over head.

Had it been under different circumstances, she would have appreciated what a beautiful sight the eagle made against clear blue sky. With one last look around the area to assure herself that the man was not there, she crawled over to her bag and grabbed the small bottle of aspirin, she popped the lid off and shook two tablets in her hand, then she picked up her water bottle only to find that it was empty, annoyed, she putt the bottle down.

Then she looked through her bag and seized the fruit cup, she pulled on the tab, just hard enough to open it, a small crack. Tempe popped the two tablets in her mouth and putt the fruit cup to her lips and drank the sirup, using it to wash down the pills. She then pulled the lid all the way off and ate the fruit.

Tempe decided to wait for her headache to subside a bit before she ventured out to the creek to get more water. She knew she would have to be on high alert when she is out there, if she was going to avoid getting fond by that man.

It had been close to an hour later when she finally felt well enough to hike over to the creek. Tempe crawled out from her niche and stood up for the first time in eighteen hours. She was stiff, sore, and just a little light headed. She had her right hand holding her injured left side while she rested her left hand on a nearby tree till the wooziness passed.

Once Tempe had her bearings, she slowly and carefully made her way down the hill. She was almost at the bottom of the hill when her foot caught on a rock and she tripped, sending rolling the rest of the way down the hill. When she came to a stop, Tempe curled herself into a tight ball and started to cry, her side was on fire, her head was pounding, her right knee smarted were she fell on it, and she now had stinging little scratches and bruises all over her body.

She stayed there with her knees tucked close to her chest, crying for a few minutes, then she cautiously sat up, sniffed her nose and wiped her eyes. She needed to get that water and she needed to get to some cover. Tempe steeled her resolve, and stood up to hiked her way to the creek, and thankfully for her, she was able to get there and back with no more mishaps and without being seen by _him_.

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**7:28 P.M. Monday**

**FBI headquarters**

Booth and Penning were looking over the information they had gathered so far, when the rest of the team joined them in the bull pen each one of them carrying a file. Penning looked at agent Bill Hobbes. He was a short man only about 5' 6" in his early forties and look a lot like Jo Pecce. Booth did not like him at all. Hobbes is a capable agent, it's just that he is such a jerk, not many people can stand to be around him for any length of time, without wishing they could punch him or that something unfortunate would happen to him.

"Did you find out anything from the security guard? And what about the cameras?" Penning asked.

Hobbes was looking through the file in his hand as he answered, "The guard, Tucker James was the last person to see Dr. Brennan, he said she left the museum around three A.M. Sunday, he offered to escort her to her car but she declined and that was the last time she was seen. As for the cameras they were taken down on Saturday to be replaced with upgrades, but something happened and the new cameras didn't get there till this morning." Hobbes then handed the file to Penning.

"So did our perp. Know about the security cameras or was he just lucky?" Agent Judy Wilton.

" Well according to this," Penning held up the file in his hand, "there were never any cameras in that section of the parking lot in th first place, all he had to do was get her to park in that section and he was home free. I don't get the feeling he knew about the upgrades, or lack there of." Penning looked at the petite blond, blue-eyed woman "Judy, What have you got?"

"The forensic team found some blood on the victim's car, they think it might be for our kidnaper, the blood from the car and the curb is in the lab now, they will have results some time tomorrow. They also found some prints, but have found no matches yet. And so far no leads, on why Brennan didn't just park in her spot."

When Wilton had finished talking the final member of their team agent Isaac Allee spoke up, he was a towering 6'8" and had dark skin and kind brown eyes, he was the kind of guy you wanted to have around in a tight situation, he was the complete opposite of Hobbes. Booth always like working with him, and he was grateful that Allee was on this case.

Isaac stated the facts he had, "I have looked at all the co-workers and their alibis check out, there clear." When Booth heard this, he gave a dirty look but quickly changed it, he knew as an FBI agent that they had to cover all their bases, but as a person who has worked and hung out with these people he couldn't help but to feel a little offended that they had been looked at as suspects in this case. Hobbes caught the look and rolled his eyes at Booth, making it clear that he thought Booth had no business be on this case.

Penning took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose, "So we can't do much till we get the results back tomorrow so until then...Wilton I want you to find out why Brennan didn't park in her spot Saturday, Booth I'd like you to come with me to talk to the co-workers again, are they still here," Booth nodded his head yes. "Good, we'll see if we can't find something we missed before, as for the rest of you, you know what you are suppose to, so lets get to it." With that said all the agents left to accomplish their goals.

As Booth and Penning made their way to the conference room where the squint-squad was, Booth let his mind wonder, he knew, that the first twenty-four hours were crucial when someone was abducted, Bones has been gone for nearly forty-one hours, and with each hour that passed, especially when there was no ransom demand, it meant that the chances of finding Bones alive were becoming less and less. Booth tried to keep his mind off of the negative and focus on how to get her back and getting the scum-bag who took her, in prison.

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Please tell me what you think.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: See chapter one

(A/N) I just got my new computer today. I'm so so so happy to have a computer again. Did you jusy love the last episode of Bones it was so good. Thank you so much for being patient with me and the slow updates and also thank you for your reviews.

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**Chapter Seven**

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**7:35 P.M. Monday**

**FBI Headquarters**

Booth and Penning walked into the conference room, Booth shut the door behind him, he looked around the room and saw that everyone was sitting at the huge table in the middle of the room. They had not noticed that the two agents had come in yet, so Booth and Penning took a moment to study them. Dr. Goodman was sitting at the head of the table farthest from the door, looking like he was deep in thought, sitting to Goodman's right was Zach Addy who was writing on a pad in front of him as he stared off into space, Booth wasn't sure that the young man even knew he was writing, directly across from Zach was Jack Hodgins who was quietly taking to Angela who was sitting next to him, she looked as if she was worried sick, sitting there wringing her hands together.

Jack was the first one to notice them sanding by the door he stopped talking and sat back in his chair. This action alerted the rest to their presence.

"Is there any news?" Angela asked as she looked back and forth between the two agents, Penning nodded his head toward Booth, signaling him to talk the lead. Booth walked over to them and stopping next to Zach.

"Nothing I can share with you right now, but I can tell you we have a few leads."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" This came from Dr. Goodman.

"That's why we are here. We want to ask you a few questions."

"What would you like to know agent Booth?"

"Have any of you noticed anything unusual in the last week or so?" Booth asked as he looked at each one in turn, starting with Zach, they all replied no.

"What about Brennan did she mention seeing some thing unusual? Did she seem scared or tense this past week?"

Again they all gave him a negative response.

This time it was Penning asking the question"What about..."

Angela gasped "Oh wait, I think I remember something, it was earlier this week on Wednesday I think. Anyway I took Brenn. to lunch at a small café on 7th and west. I noticed that as soon as we left the lab she really seemed to be distracted but I really didn't think too much of it then, I just figured that she was thinking about her work that I had just pulled her away from, but later on, after lunch, we were walking back to my car when she just stopped all of a sudden and spun around, I stopped too and asked what was wrong, at first she just ignored me and kept looking around, but finally she said that for the past few day she had been getting the feeling that she was being watched, I had been a little concerned about it at the time and suggested that she tell the police, but she just shrugged it off as nothing. She told me it was nothing, just stress, that I didn't need to worry. So I just put it out of my mind." Angela's face scrunched up and she looked like she was on the verge of tears, "I should have done something then, I should have made her report it to the police, I shouldn't have left town, I..."

Hodgins cut in, "Hey, stop that. There was no way you could have known. This is not your fault."

"He's right you know this guy was obviously following her for some time, there was nothing you could have done, The blame lies solely with the person who took her." Penning commented.

"There was no threatening letters or phone calls or anything that would have given us a clue that this was going to happen. And as you said even Brennan didn't seem to worried. There was no way to know this was going to happen." Booth further assured her, and everyone else in the room.

Angela turned and buried her face in Jack's chest and started to cry, he went stiff as a board and looked as if someone had just throne a poisonous reptile in his lap, but slowly he started to relax a little and put his arm around her and awkwardly rubbed her back, under different circumstances Jacks reaction would have been funny.

Goodman reached into his pocket and pulled out a tissue, then leaned forward and handed it to Hodgins, who promptly gave it to Angela. Penning gave the artist a sympathetic smile, "I'd like to ask you all a few more questions." Angela calmed herself down and sat up moving away from Hodgins, nodding her head while she wiped her eyes and nose with the tissue, and waited for the next question.

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**7:30 P.M. Monday**

**Location: Unknown**

Tempe sat in her little hide out with a pad and pen, drawing up a little map, and coming up with a plan to get herself out of this mess. She would have to put this plan into action soon, very soon or she would not be strong enough to carry it out. Her injuries were beginning taking their toll.

Now that she was no longer able to change the bandage on her bullet wound, she knew it would be impossible to keep it clean, and that it was only a matter of time before it got infected. When that happed she would be too sick to help herself, and then she would have to wait for help or be found by him.

Tempe didn't do the damsel in distress thing, she preferred to be the hero who could save themself. So she decided, that tomorrow just before dawn she was going to clime to the top of the hill, to make herself a compass. And see if she could find any sign of a road or maybe even a town.

She figured that even though the warehouse that he had stopped at where she escaped, looked abandon, she recalled seeing signs that it had, had repairs done on it recently, so there must be a town near by. A town where she could find help, she just needed to know where it was and get there.

So now that Tempe had some idea of what she was going to do tomorrow she put the pad and pen down, she glanced at her watch and frowned then looked outside, it was starting to get dark. Tempe dreaded the night, she knew it would be just as cold as it had been last night. It was horrible to have everything you need to build a fire but be unable to for fear of being found by your enemy.

Tempe closed her eyes and tried to remember which direction the warehouse was. She had been at it for to half an hour or so, when she finally gave up, she was so exhausted and in pain that she couldn't think strait.

Tempe grabbed her bag and started to put all her things in it, she wanted to be ready to leave first thing in the morning. She wasn't planing on coming back here so she was taking every thing with her. Tempe was a little nervus about tomorrow, she had no idea what she would encounter or what she would do if she ran across him. Tempe shook her head and told herself not to think about it.

"I really hope someone is looking for me because if my plan doesn't work . . . well . . . " she shrugged her shoulders and gave a cynical snort, "I'll most likely end up dead." She looked out through the bushes, at the sky and said, "Come on Booth, I'm counting on you, to... what's that saying . . . be my back, no, be my back up . . . no... have my back, that's it." Tempe smiled in triumph at being able to remember that little phrase. She hadn't had this giddy, sleep deprived, silly, feeling since she was a kid. She didn't know why she felt this way, she had taken a nap earlier that day, even if it was not all that restful, she had still slept, _'It's probably just stress.' _Tempe decided.

With everything packed and ready to, Tempe laid down and tried not to think about tomorrow or anything else for that matter and attempted to sleep.

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Sorry if this was a little slow but it will pick up in the next chapter.

Please tell me what you think.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: see chapter one

Spoilers: for ' woman in the garden', but nothing big.

(A/N) AIC stand for Agent In Charge. I will be out of town for almost week so I will not be able to up date for a while so I wrote an extra long chapter I hope you like it. I really had a heard time writing this up. I hope it turned out alright. Thank you all so much for your feed back. And just so you know I don't mind at all if you point out my mistakes, I just don't think I will be going back and correcting them any time soon.

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**Chapter Eight**

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**5:00 A.M. Tuesday**

**Location: Unknown**

After eating a granola bar Tempe grabbed her bag and headed out of her little hideout, she stopped at the entrance and took one last look around. She heaved a heavy sigh, turned and made her way out. Tempe slowly and very, very carefully made her way to the top of the hill.

Once Tempe made it to the top, she put her bag down and leaned up against a near by tree it had taken her close to an hour to get up here. She didn't think it would take this long to get here. Tiredly she pushed away from the tree and started looking around for things she would need to make her compass. She would need to find a clearing in the woods and a strait stick.

It didn't take her long to locate what she required. Tempe walked to the middle of this clearing and stuck the stick in the ground. The sun was hanging low in the sky as it made it's way up. Tempe look at the shadow that the stick made, then she pulled out the two lengths of rope and laid them on the ground in the shape of a cross with the stick in the middle, the top part of the cross was in the shadow of the stick. She bent down and wrote an W at the top of the cross, E at the bottom, an S on the right side, and an N on the left.

She stood and winced in pain, her bullet wound had become so sensitive that almost any sort of movement caused pain. And that was really starting to worry her.

Tempe pulled out her pad and pen, the night before she had made a little map of the area using the hill and the creek as points of reference, and now that she had a compass of sorts she could see that the creek north east of her. Tempe looked up and scanned the woods below her, she was able to see the roof of the warehouse it was to the south east. She gave a slight shake of her head and turned away from the warehouse. She didn't think it would by a good idea to go back there.

Tempe continued to scan the area, slowly looking back and forth. Than she saw it, movement. It was a vehicle of some kind, she strained to see beyond the car to where it was going. There, a building, no in fact it was several buildings. "It's a town." Tempe whispered, she was so relieved, Brennan almost started to cry when she saw it. It was only about five miles south west. She noted where the town was on her home made map. There was a lot of empty space on her map between where she was and the town, a lot of space to get lost in. '_Well as long as I can see the sun I'll know which direction the town is.' _

Tempe bent down and picked up the ropes and stick, then erased any evidence of her being there. She took a deep breath and looked at the town, and wondered if she will be able to make it to the town. If she were uninjured and not in so much pain she would have thought nothing of walking five miles or more. She had in the past hiked rougher terrain twice as long with out a whole lot of difficulty, but now...? '_Now what?...now I hike to that town and find help, that's what, I'm still strong enough to make it. I can do this! I can.' _She gave one quick nod of her head, then she grabbed her things and started to make her way to her goal.

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**10:42 A.M. Tuesday**

**FBI headquarters**

Agent Kory Knight was trying desperately to get the attention of agent Penning for close to an hour, but so far has been unsuccessful. He was surrounded by all sorts of FBI personnel, and she was getting tired of chasing Brad Penning all over the place. But she could be patient. Kory had information that just might help with his case, well at least she thought so. She was a fairly new agent, she'd only been working for the FBI for a year. But she was a good agent and had great instincts and right now, they were telling her that she really had something here.

So she just waited for the last batch of agents circling Brad to leave, but before she could get to him, Cullen and FBI director Furst intercepted Penning and then they headed for Cullen's office.

"Oh great, how long is this going to take?" she mumbled to herself as she plopped down in the nearest chair

Kory had been sitting there for fifteen minute when she saw Agent Booth walk by. She jumped up and followed him. If she couldn't talk to Brad then maybe she could talk to Booth.

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Booth was trying to find Judy Wilton, he needed to know if the lab had given her the results on what they found at the crime scene. He spotted her coming out of her office. As he made his way to her he walked past Cullens' office. He knew Penning was in there, with not only Cullen but Furst as well, that was one thing Booth did not envy Penning.

"Hey, Judy did the lab get back to you abo.." he trailed of when he realized Wilton was on the phone, Judy turned to him and gave him a smile then mouthed "No, not yet sorry." Booth nodded his head in thanks, she gave him a sad smile and walked away.

"Agent Booth, Agent Booth I need to speak with you."

Booth turned around to see who was calling him, it was a pretty young woman of about twenty five or twenty six with long black hair, tan skin, and blue eyes. He had seen her around, he thought _'What is her name? Light, no, Bright, no... Knight that was it, Agent Knight.' _

"Agent Booth, I'm Kory Knight, I wanted to talk to you about the Brennan case."

"You know, Penning is the AIC on this case."

"Yes I know." she said with a longsuffering sigh, "Would you like to join me in the break room for coffee, so we could talk?"

Booth was a little puzzled by her response, to his mention of Penning, but was more interested in what she had to say about the case.

"Only if your buying."

"I don't know if you buy free coffee, but I can sure pour you a cup."

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**10:42 A.M. Tuesday**

**Location: Unknown**

Tempe stopped and looked around her, Ok now she was fairly officially lost. It had become very cloudy in the last hour or so, it made so she could no longer see where the sun was, and with out the sun her map was pretty well useless.

She was fast running out of energy, and was hungry, but she refused to stop. Tempe was so deep in her own thoughts that she didn't notice that the woods had begun to thin out. Tempe stepped on some hard packed ground, she instantly looked down to see what she had trod on, she found she was standing on an old dirt road that was more or less just two tire tracks. She knelt down to get a closer look at the road, it appeared that someone had driven through here recently.

Tempe was still studying the road when she heard a loud noise break the silence, her head shot up and to her left, to see where the sound was coming from. She recognized the sound she heard as a generator. She saw a small cabin with an out building, where the generator was stored. She could tell someone was still in the out building, but was unsure if she should go up there and ask for help, she continued to look around. Then she saw it, the car, His car, this was her abductor. Tempe immediately dove for the nearest cover, grunting in pain when she hit the ground.

Tempe peaked out through the bushes she was hiding in, just in time to see him come out of the shed, he shut the door and locked it, the noise of the generator was now muffled, so much so, that you really couldn't hear it any more. The man now climbed into his dark green oldsmobile, Tempe pressed herself as close to the ground as she could. She didn't so much as move a muscle until he drove past and she could no longer hear his car.

Tempe sat up and tried to figure out what to do next, she knew she would need supplies, food , water, blankets, and badges, because at the rate she was moving she knew that she would be spending tonight out in the woods. She looked at the cabin knowing that everything she need was in there. She stood up and took a shaky breath, she hid her bag in the bushes, then slowly crept up to the house, before she could talk herself out of this crazy stunt. She really didn't want to think about what would happen if he were to come back and caught her in here.

As soon as she reached the cabin she looked in all of the windows, to make sure no one was in there. She found that the cabin had a great room that was a combo living room/ kitchen, then there was a nice size bedroom and a bathroom. Tempe feeling reasonably safe, went to open the front door.

Tempe looked around inside the cabin, it only had a few pieces of furniture, just a table with four chairs in the kitchen area a desk a few feet from the front door, and a couch by the fire place. The whole cabin was very neat and clean, not a thing was out of place there were no dishes in the sink or even drying on the counter, the desk had no clutter on it.

Tempe started to make her way to the kitchen, when she thought she heard something. She froze holding her breath, listening for it to happen again, but all she could hear was very low buzz of the generator. She just stood there and waited, there it was again. She thought it sounded like someone crying, she tip-toed around the room trying to find where it was coming from. It was coming from the floor.

By the back door there was a rug, she went over to it and pick it up and found a trap door to a cellar. She pulled it up just a crack and listened. She heard a woman say "shh, quiet! He's coming! Please, Please stop crying, you know he gets mad when we cry, Please stop." The woman's tone pleading and scared.

At hearing this Tempe pulled the hatch all the way open and started to make her down the stairs. She stopped half way down the stairs and looked around, what she saw broke her heart and made her sick. There was two women sitting on the dirt floor, both had a light weight eight foot chain cuffed around there left ankles, chaining them to there own separate corners. Each woman had a small lumpy mattress with a blanket, and a bucket with a roll toilet paper. The cellar was fifteen by fifteen by six feet high with only one small filthy window the gave little light, it smelled of mildew and human waste, the buckets had flies swarming around them, the smell was so over powering that she started to gag.

"Will you help us?" Ask scared weak voice. Tempe rushed over to the woman and knelt down in front of her, Tempe grabbed the chain attached to the woman's ankle, the cuff locked just like hand cuffs, "Do you know where the keys are?"

"In the kitchen, in one of the drawers."

"I'll be right back." she got up to rush up stairs and find the keys, but froze when saw a third mattress and chain, Tempe shivered, knowing that chain had been meant for her, and if she had not gotten away from him, this would have been her fate sitting here in the dark waiting to die. For a moment she had a flash back to when she was in South America where she was kept in a place very similar to this.

Tempe shook off the bad memories and what ifs, then raced up the stairs to the kitchen. She found two rings full of keys, then moving as fast as her injured body would allow, back to the woman. Tempe was trying to find the right key, but there were so many, this might take some time, and time was one thing they did not have.

"I'm Jodee, Jodee Wright, and that's Linda Prat." Jodee said pointing to the other woman, Linda just sat in her corner whimpering, looking shell shocked.

Tempe looked at Jodee and smiled, "I'm Temperance Brennan."

Jodee lost all the color in her face, "It's you. You were next. He said, you were next."

Tempe busied herself with finding the right key, "I know." she said softly.

"But how...how did you..."

Tempe finally found the key and freed Jodee, Tempe helped her to stand up. "Go up stairs and grab a pillow case or a bag or something and fill it with food, also see if you can find water bottles, some utensils, and maybe a small cooking pot.. Oh and some blankets. And remember to keep an eye out for him." Tempe said as she was trying to find the key to Linda's ankle cuff. "Can you do that, Jodee?"

"Yeah, I can do that, but please hurry."she called out as she run up the stairs.

As soon as Tempe freed Linda, she headed to the stair, she felt they had been here way too long. Tempe was almost at the stairs when she realized Linda was not behind her. Tempe spun around, only to find that Linda was still sitting on the floor, Tempe ran back to her and pulled her to her feet, "Come on we need to go. Don't you want to get out of here?" the woman nodded, "Then come on." Tempe urged, half pulling her up the stairs.

Tempe looked around the cabin and found Jodee over by the desk, she had just pulled something out of it, Tempe watched us Jodee hugged whatever it was to her chest then kissed it then put it in her pants pocket. Tempe ignored what she had just seen and walked over to Jodee, pulling Linda behind her, "Did you find everything? Are we ready to go? I really think we should go."

"Yeah, I got everything, lets go." Jodee bent down and picked up an overnight bag full of the supples that they would need.

Tempe took them to where she had hid her bag. Tempe stopped to kneel down and pick it up, when Linda ran in to her, Tempe grabbed her side and hissed in pain, Linda jumped away from her and started to cry, She looked at Tempe and said in a weak little voice, "I'm sorry."

Jodee dropped the overnight bag and stood in front of Tempe, "Oh my god. Your hurt. Are you alright?"

Tempe waited for the pain to subside before she answered Jodee "It's OK I'm fine."

"Well you don't look fine. your really pale. What happen to you? Did he beat you up?"

"No not really, I was shot ." Tempe said matter of factly.

"Shot? Oh my god, you where shot?"

"Yes. Now we need to get going."

"Ok, where do we go from here?"

"Well for right now, lets just get away from here, and then we will try and figure out where that town is."

"What town?"

"The one I saw earlier today was just a few miles south west of where I was." Tempe said as she picked up her bag.

"Ok. Are you sure you're all right? Do you think you'll be able to make it to this town?"

"Yes, I'm fine, I've made it this far, I can sure as heck make the rest of the way."

"OK." Jodee picked up the overnight bag, watching Tempe as if she were a ticking time bomb. Tempe felt bad that Jodee was worried about her, but there was nothing she could do about that. When Tempe thought of what these women had suffered at the hands of that man, it made her so livid, she could just kill him. Tempe grabbed Linda by the arm and headed away from the cabin Jodee following a few feet behind.

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**11:02 A.M. Tuesday**

**FBI Headquarters**

"So what was it about the case you wanted to talk to me about, Agent Knight?" Booth asked as soon as she sat down with her coffee.

"Kory please, Well, frankly put. I think Dr. Brennan is just the latest victim of a serial kidnapper. I've been working on this case for close to four months now, and I really think this is the guy who took Dr. Brennan. Here are some files of the serial kidnapers victims." Kory pushed the files over to Booth, he pick them up and started looking through them.

After about ten minutes of look over the files Booth put them down and looked at Kory who was ripping up a paper napkin, "Knight, what makes you think this has anything to do with Bo...ah..Brennan? None of these women where from DC. And all of them are in different lines of work, in fact the only thing they seem to have in common with Brennan is there age and height." Booth said, he was a little irritated, thinking this was just a waste of time.

"I know on the surface it appears that way, but look at these." Kory put four picture side by side in front of him. Booth looked down at them and was surprised to see that all the women in the pictures looked eerily alike, finally Kory laid a picture of Temperance next to the others, all five women could have easily been mistaken for sisters. "all right, I great you, they do look like Bones, Brennan, but that doesn't mean the this is our guy."

"Ok, lets look at it this way, right now you are pretty much at a stand still with your case until you hear back from the lab, right?" Booth nodded his head yes, not really sure where she was headed with this. She continued, "So what would it hurt to look in to this? If I'm wrong about this, and this guy isn't our kidnapper, you still haven't lost any time with your case, But what if I am right and we didn't at least look into this, what then?" When Booth didn't answer her right away, she continued, "We will have missed an opportunity, and precious time, that's what."

Booth gave a mirthless laugh, "I think you should have been a lawyer."

She smiled at him, "You know, that's what my brother keeps telling me, he never wanted me to become an agent. But it's not like he has a whole lot of room to talk, I was only following his lead."

"Your Bother's FBI?"

Kory gave him a funny, as if he should already know that, "Yeah, Brad," When Booth didn't seem understand who she was talking about, Kory added, "Agent Penning." Booth look surprised then confused.

Penning was blond and fair skinned, where Knight was olive skinned with black hair, the only thing they had in common was that they both had blue eyes, but that was it. Kory must of understood his confusion, because she laughed and said, "I know, we don't look alike at all, we have different fathers. In fact, Brad's father was an FBI Agent, but he was kill in the line of duty when Brad was only three months old. Anyway Brad looks like his dad and I look like mine." Booth found that Kory liked to talk, and that he liked her. She was fun and easy to talk to, Kory really reminded Booth of his little sister. And if he wasn't carful he just might start calling her Booger, but he didn't think agent Knight would like that, he knew his sister sure didn't.

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So what did you think? I know this is a really long chapter but like I said this chapter will have to last awhile. I really hope you liked it.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: See chapter one

A/N Thank you so much for all your feed back. I'm sorry for the long wait. I hope you like this chapter. And sorry for any mistakes.

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**Chapter Nine**

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**3:27 P.M. Tuesday**

**FBI headquarters**

Booth sat back in his chair and moved his head from side to side to get the kinks out. He and Kory had gone to Booths' Office to look into Korys' hunch. They had been looking through file after file and making phone calls for the past few hours trying to find some sort of conation between the two cases. They had found some similarities, but nothing solid. In spite of the lack of hard proof, Booth was becoming more and more convinced that this kidnapper was the one who abducted Bones.

Kory heaved a tired sigh, then pushed away from Booths' desk to sand up and go to the break room for more coffee, "So What do all these women, including Brennan, have in common?"

Booth handed the young agent his mug when she held up her coffee cup, silently asking if he wanted a refill too. "Other then the fact that they all look alike, are between the age of twenty-eight and thirty-two, and are tall, not much."

Kory walked back into the office and sat back down in her chair then handed Booth his coffee, Booth smiled his thanks. She picked up her note pad, "Well, lets go over what we know so far and maybe we will find something new, get a better idea of what we need to look for."

"OK, Jennifer Murphy, Linda Prat, and Brennan were all set up and trapped. Murphy had her gas line cut so she would run out on her way home from work, the kidnapper fallowed her until she stopped then took her. Prat was coming out of a salon when she was some how lured into the ally, then disappeared."

"And then with Brennan she had been made to park her car far away from the museum, when she found that there was a motor bike in her spot. This bike by the way had been stolen earlier that day from two blocks away, and had been wiped clean." Kory then added, "Jodee Write and Cyndie Winger were taken the way they were because the opportunity presented itself, but I have a feeling that if he had, had to wait much longer to kidnap then he would have set traps for Write and Winger as well."

Feeling the need to move Booth stood up and started to pace, "Then at three of the abductions witnesses said there was a dark green or black four door car leaving the scene."

"Didn't one of the witnesses say it was an Oldsmobile?"

"Yeah, but, you know this really doesn't help us connect this case to Brennan's, 'cause no one saw anything when she was taken." Booth said, feeling a little frustrated. Kory was about to point out anther thing on their list when there was a knock on the open door, "Booth, Penning wants as to meet him in the bullpen." Allee said as soon as he had Booths' attention.

"I'll be there in a minute. Hey Isaac did the lab call?"

"Yeah, but only to tell us they're backed up and we won't get results till late tonight or tomorrow."

Booth gave a disgusted look, "Thanks anyway, for the update."

"Sure, see you in a few." Allee said to Booth and started to leave, but before he did, he smiled and nodded his head to Kory, who was quietly putting all the files back in their box, she smiled and waved at him. Booth was about introduce the two when he looked up at Isaac and saw him roll his eyes and laugh at Kory, as she stuck her tongue out at Allee. Booth missed seeing what had started this little interchange.

After Allee left Booth said, "I take it you already know Isaac."

"Oh yeah, for years in fact, but it's a long story. Remind me to tell you some time." She picked up the now full file box and headed out of Booths' office.

Booth waited for her to step though the door before he locked up his office, "I'm going to talk to Penning about all this, and since this was your hunch I'd like you to come with me."

"Ok, just let me put these files away."

"No, bring them with you. He'll need to see them." Kory nodded then followed Booth to the bullpen.

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**3:48 P.M. Tuesday**

**Location: Unknown **

Temperance stopped yet again to rest, the burst of adrenalin she had, had when she found Jodee and Linda, had long since worn off. Tempe let go of Linda's arm and sat at the base of a near by tree. Tempe shivered, it had started to sprinkle a few minutes ago, and though it was a little chilly out Tempe seemed to be the only one who was affected by it. Tempe feared the infection she had been fighting had finally started to set in.

Jodee came and kneeled in front of Brennan she touched her hand to Tempe's forehead. Jodee frowned, "You're really warm, how are you feeling?"

Tempe gave her wan smile and struggled to stand up, Jodee grabbed Tempe's bag and handed it to Linda then helped her up. "Maybe we should just rest here for a while."

Linda tensed and became antsy at hearing Jodee's suggestion, but said nothing. She looked at Tempe with pleading eyes, silently asking her to say no, so they could keep moving.

"No we need to get going. I'll be fine." Linda relaxed and smiled her thanks to Brennan, she stepped forward and grabbed Tempe's arm giving her some support. Linda was finally starting to come out of her daze.

They had been walking for ten minutes, the rain had really started to come down in earnest, when Tempe suddenly stopped and look around, "Oh this is just great!"

"What? What's the matter?" Jodee asked anxiously, as she tried to find what was wrong. Linda gripped Tempe's arm hard. She too was looking around for hidden dangers.

"It's OK. I just know this place." Tempe explained with an apologetic smile.

"Well, isn't that a good thing?" Jodee looked at her confused.

"I guess it could be. At least we can get out of this rain. I hid in a little niche half way up that hill there." Tempe pointed to the area she was talking about.

Twenty minutes later all of them were safely tucked under blankets in Brennan's hideout, with Top Ramen cooking on a little Colman stove. All of them had taken off their soaked clothes and hung them up to dry. Tempe was really starting to feel sick, she knew she had a fever and her side was throbbing, and she was completely out aspirin. She had looked at the wound when she was getting out of her wet clothes. It had been red, swollen and infected.

Jodee gave Tempe and Linda bowls of Top Ramen. Tempe forced herself to eat her Ramen, then put her bowl and spoon with the rest of their things. Linda had finished her dinner and was now curled in a ball sleeping. Jodee was sitting next to Tempe, looking troubled, Tempe was not sure what to do or what to say so she just sat there.

Finally Tempe asked, "Are you OK?" not sure what else to say.

Jodee turned to Tempe, she had tears in her eyes, "You know, this all seems like such a...I don't know . . . a nightmare I guess. Sometimes it just feels like it was all a really bad dream, and other times it's all too real. It just happened so fast. I was walking to the corner market a few blocks from my house one evening. He jumped out of a parked car and grabbed me that was the last thing I remember. The next thing I know I was in that cellar and Jenny was cleaning the cut on my forehead. It was so bad those first two weeks, he would, would . . . uh.. every night. Then he brought Cyndie, then Linda." Jodee was shaking and silently crying.

Tempe wanted to comfort her, but was unsure how to do that. Tempe thought about what Jodee had just told her, Tempe got this almost panicked feeling, _'There had been two others. Where are they? Did we leave them behind? Are they somewhere else in the cabin I missed, or in one of the out buildings? Or are they . . . ?' _Tempe had stayed quite when Jodee had been talking before, Knowing that Jodee needed to talk, to have someone just listen to her. But now Tempe needed some answers. Tempe leaned over to Jodee and laid her hand on the women's shoulder, "What happened to the other two?" She asked softly.

Jodee took a deep breath and look away from Brennan, "Jenny's dead and I think Cyndie is too."

"What happened to them?"

"I had been there almost three weeks. Cyndie was already there. One night He came down to get Jenny, he was dragging her up the stairs, she jerked away from him, and lost her balance. She fell down the stairs. I think she broke her neck. She was just laying there, he ran down to check on her, at first he was really upset, crying even, then he was mad, and then he just . . . just went still, no emotion at all, like someone had flipped a switch. Calmly he said 'what a waste, we could have been so good together.' And then he picked up her body and left. Cyndie was a mess after that she just lost it. She would just sit there and talk or sing to herself, curl up in a ball and cry for hours, then when Linda came she got so much worse, eventually she stopped eating. After about three days or so of her not eating, he came down and stood in front of her for a really long time finally He said in that same lifeless tone as before, 'what a waste, we could have been so good together.' Then he grabbed her, and took her upstairs, she didn't even fight him. I heard her scream when she was up there and I heard things fall and crash around up there, then there was nothing. I never saw her again." Jodee broke down in sobs, "you know the only thing then kept me going, the only thing that kept me sane, was the thought of my son, seeing him again, to hold him and tell him how much I love him."

Tempe ignored the biting pain in her side and scooted closer to Jodee, then Tempe put a comforting arm around her When Jodee had calmed down a bit Tempe asked, "How old is your son?"

Jodee wiped her eyes and snuffed a few times before she answered, "He'll be six next week."Jodee smiled, "he's growing up so fast."

Tempe wanted to keep Jodee's mind off of what she had been through, so she just kept asking Jodee about her son, her family, her life, anything and everything she could think of.

Tomorrow they could start new, hopefully it will be a clear day and they will make it to that town. Tempe only hoped that she will be strong enough to make it.

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Please tell me what you think.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: See chapter one

(A/N) I'm in the middle of moving right now so updates might be really slow, Sorry. I think there will only be four or five more chapters to this story, depending on how I want to end it. I have four different endings, and some are a lot longer then others. Thank you all very, very much for all your reviews. Please forgive any mistakes ('cause I'm sure there are plenty of them. I wrote this up really fast. Fast as in I wrote it in two days instead of three or four or five or . . . well you get the picture.)

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**Chapter Ten**

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**5:38 P.M. Tuesday**

**FBI Headquarters**

After Penning had gathered his team together, and everyone had been updated. Booth pulled Penning aside, then he and Agent Knight told him about their theory about the serial kidnapper and Brennan.

"Do you have any solid connection between the two cases?" Penning asked, after Booth and Kory were finished sharing their few leads.

"Well . . . " Kory was cut off by Hobbes who had apparently been eavesdropping on them.

"Oh Please, of course they don't have any real connection. Look at who is talking here, a desperate Agent who is too, close to this case to begin with, and a _Junior _Agent. They're just grasping at straws and wasting valuable time."

Booth would like nothing more then to punch Hobbes, and he could see that Penning did not like Hobbes' tone when he had said 'Junior Agent' when referring to his little sister. Kory seemed to have kept her cool, refusing to let Bill affect her. Isaac and Judy came over curious about what was going on.

"What's up?" Allee asked, Kory, she repeated what she had told her brother.

"As much as I hate to agree with Bill on anything. I have to say that I don't see where this serial kidnapper is in any way involved with Brennan's abduction." Judy said. Allee stayed quite and had a pensive look his face, then slowly a sly grin made its way on his dark face. He looked at Kory out of the corner of his eye, "You have something else, don't you? Something to make you think Brennan was kidnaped by this guy huh?"

Kory gave a playful smile, then looked at Bill in annoyance,"Well of coarse I do. I was just about to show Brad when Hobbes here interrupted me."

She pulled out the pictures of the four victims of the kidnapper from one of the files she had in the file box, she had carried in. She put them side by side on a near by table, just as she had done with Booth. When everyone had gotten a good look at the photos, she then she pulled out a picture of Brennan.

Booth could tell by the looks on the Agents' faces that they could see the resemblance between the five women. Even Hobbes could not deny the striking similarities in the five women's look's and stature. After Kory and Booth showed them the pictures and pointed out some of the other similarities between Brennan and the other women, a few of their fellow Agents seemed a little more inclined to put stock in Kory's theory.

"OK, I see where you two are coming from, but I'm not entirely convinced. But since we're at a stand still with this case for the time being, I don't think it would hurt to look into this a little more closely." Penning said as he stepped closer to the table to get a better look at the photos.

Hobbes looked ready to explode, "I can't believe this! This is bull, the only reason your even giving this . . . this feebleminded _theory _any consideration at all is because she's your little sister." Bill's voice had risen with each word til he was almost shouting.

Again Penning was visibly put on edge by Hobbes remarks about Kory. Isaac, Judy, and Booth were all annoyed with Bill, but stayed quiet. While Kory on the other hand was gearing up to rip Hobbes a new one, she was mad. Hobbes had not only insulated Kory, but more or less questioned her brothers' ability to run this investigation, and his competency as an FBI Agent as well. And that seemed to be the thing that bugged her the most.

Just before Kory was about to launch into her tirade, a man walked into the bullpen, "Agent Penning?" The man asked while holding up a small package. The tall blond Agent stepped forward.

"What can I do for you?"

The man could obviously feel the tension in the room, but did not comment on it, "I have a surveillance tape here, it was forwarded to this office to day. We think we have Identified the women in the tape as Dr. Brennan."

"Where is this surveillance tape from, and when was it recorded?" Booth asked from behind Penning.

"The recording was taken from the parking lot of the Crafts Inc. Warehouse on Sunday morning."

"Why didn't we get this tape Sunday?" Booth demanded angrily, Isaac put a restraining hand on Booths shoulder. As soon as Booth seemed to relax Allee pulled his hand away.

The man seemed to understand the aggravation of not getting the tape sooner, so he did not fault Booth for being mad, "The warehouse is empty. Crafts Inc. Just bought the facility two months ago and is currently remodeling. They only go over the surveillance tapes every few days." The man held up the tape in his hand, "They just got around to looking at this tape yesterday."

"Where is Crafts Inc. Located?" Penning asked calmly.

"About five or six miles north east of a small town called . . . " the man flipped over the tape in his hand and looked at what was written on it, "Condon." He stated then handed the tape to Penning.

Penning held out his hand to the man, "Thanks for getting this tape to us Agent . . . ?"

The man smiled and shook Brads' hand, "Tim, Tim Sears. I'm not an Agent though, just a computer tech." Tim walked away, leaving the Agents watch the tape and study it for clues.

All the irritation over Hobbes earlier comments were put on hold, so that they could focus on the case. Judy grabbed the cart with the TV and VCR on it and put in the front of the room, then she reached behind it and plugged them in. Penning shook the tape out of it's jacket, put it in the VCR and pushed play.

Though the tape was in black and white the picture was very clear and not grainy like most security videos. The screen was split into four different camera angels. Booth and Kory both came to attention when they saw the dark colored Oldsmobile drive into the first frame, they looked at each other, this had confirmed yet another link to the serial kidnapper. The car had parked and a man got out walked around to the trunk. The man had the hood of his jacket up so they could not get a clear view of his face. The man opened the trunk, he had barely had time to unlock the trunk before the door shot up and a woman bolted out of it, she hit the man with her bag and knocked him down, but he jumped up and grabbed her. The woman fought the man then ran away.

The woman looked up and you could clearly see her face. Booths' heart skipped a beat as he saw the fear and panic on his friend and partners face, because the woman they were looking at on the tape was indeed Dr. Temperance Brennan. Booths' heart froze in terror when he saw the man pull out a gun and fire it. In an anther frame from a different angel they saw Bones stumble forward as she got shot. Booth jerked back slightly as if it had been him who had gotten shot. Kory must have seen Booth jerk because she discreetly put her hand on his forearm and gave it a gentle squeeze then let go.

Booth was so angry that his fisted hands began to shake in rage. He wanted nothing more then to kill that man. He watched helplessly the sick monster toyed with the woman Booth cared so much for. The man started to strangle Bones, Booth could hardly stand still, he wished with all his heart that he could clime through the TV screen and protect his partner. Booth gave a little half smile as he watched Bones whacked the SOB over the head with a rock, but the little smile was gone a moment later and replaced with worry, when he saw Bones just sand there swaying, she looked shell shocked, scared, and weak. She was holding her left arm close to her body as she picked her bag and bolted for the woods. The man slowly got up and chased after her.

Booth hated this, the last time she had been kidnaped he had been there to save her from the dirty Agent. But here he could only watch something that had already happened, helpless to do anything to protect her.

Judy grabbed the remote and fast forwarded until the man walked back out of the woods he looked frustrated and angry. Those were the exact emotions all the agents were feeling just then, not once did the man give them a clear view of his face.

"I think she got away. If he had gotten her, he wouldn't have been that upset. He would have won. He would be content, calm." Judy stated, she was their profiler.

Five minutes later Kory and Hobbes were arguing. Kory had told them about the man's car fit the description of the serial kidnappers'. Booth was now convinced without a doubt in his mind that this man and the serial kidnapper were one in the same.

Penning pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head, "That is enough, both of you shut up now!"

Hobbes opened his mouth to argue with Brad when Judy's cell phone rang, "Wilton . . . are you sure?... ok . . . thank you." Judy hung up the phone, she had a dumbfounded smile on her face, "That was the lab. Kory you were right. They match the blood found on Brennan's car, to the blood collected at one of the serial Kidnappers crime scenes."

Kory gave Hobbes this look daring him to dispute the evidence, Hobbes refused to look at her. Penning smiled proudly at his sister. Today Agent Knight had gained the respect of every agent in the room, save one, Hobbes.

It had taken close to an hour to get everything in order and the serail case transferred over to Penning. Agent Lynns was pissed that the case he had been working on for the last few months was just handed to someone else, though he and his team will go with Penning and his team to Condon, it still ticked him off.

It had taken anther three hours to get to Condon. Booth had wanted to go strait to the warehouse and start looking for Bones, but it was already dark out.

Penning, Booth, Allee, Lynns, Knight, and Rodgers all checked into a local hotel, Wilton and Hobbes had stayed behind in DC along with the rest of Lynns Team to help from that end.

Booth acted like a caged animal he would not stay still finally Penning ordered Booth to go his room and get some rest, Booth grudgingly complied and went to his room. He got in to bad, but he couldn't sleep all he could think about was Bones. _'Was she cold out there? Was she scared? lonely? Had she found some place to hide? Was she even alive?' _Finally Booth gave into exhaustion and fell into a fitful sleep.

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I know this chapter was a little long, but I hope you like it.

Please tell me what you think.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: See chapter one

A/N I'm really sorry for the slow update. I just got my computer hooked back up, in the new house. If I never see a box marked with a specific room it will live in, written on it, it will be too soon. I HATE MOVING! Thank you so much for all your feedback. I really love it.

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**Chapter Eleven**

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**7:20 A.M. Wednesday**

**Location: Unknown**

Tempe slowly opened her eyes, the sun was streaming through the leaves of the bushes that were hiding the entrance to their little cave. Tempe started to sit up but stopped instantly as pain exploded in her side. Tempe wouldn't sit up all the way nor would she lie back down, she just froze as she tried to breathe through the pain. She remained like that for several minutes before she was able to move again.

She had tears in her eyes, and let out shuttered breath and moaned as she finally laid back down. Jodee was startled awake by the distressed breathing and moan. As soon as Jodee saw Tempe she quickly crawled over to her pale injured companion. "Temperance, what's wrong? Are you Ok?" Jodee laid a light hand on Tempe's forehead, "well you only have a slight fever." She said a little relieved, but still very worried.

Linda quietly crawled over to Tempe and Jodee with the same worried look Jodee had. "I'll be fine. I just need a little time." Tempe said in a tone that left on doubt about how much pain she was in at the moment. Jodee gently brushed Tempe's hair out of her face, but pulled her hand back suddenly, "My word! You have huge goose egg on the side of your head."

Tempe gave a pitiful little half smile, "believe me, I know." The two other women smiled.

Tempe looked at them, and notice how much these women looked like her. They all had the same red-ish brown hair, their eyes were all light though not quite the some color, they had some of the same facial features, and they were all tall. The day before she had been so busy trying to find the town and trying to just make her body work that she really hadn't seen the resemblance. Tempe cataloged this observation to the back of her mind. She needed to keep her mind on the here and now, so she could come up with a plan and not become distracted.

Tempe hissed in pain as she struggled to sit up, Linda and Jodee each grabbed an arm to help her up.

"Are you sure you don't need to rest a little longer?" Linda timidly asked. Tempe shook her head.

"You really don't look well, maybe we should stay a little longer." Jodee added. Tempe reached behind Jodee and grabbed her clothes, "No, we need to get dressed, so we can leave. I think the clothes are all dry now." Tempe glanced up at the other two, they still looked very concerned about her, "I'll be fine." She assured them once again.

Linda and Jodee gave her a look that clearly said that they didn't believe her, but they did as Tempe suggested and got dressed. It took Tempe nearly three times as long as the other two to get dressed and ready to go.

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**7:30 A.M. Wednesday**

**Craft Inc. Warehouse **

Agents and local law enforcement officers had made a temporary base of operations in the parking lot of the Craft Inc. Warehouse. Booth was impatiently waiting to physically go into the forest and look for Temperance.

Penning had called a little meeting at the edge of the woods to organize the search teams, "I want teams of two or more working together. Deputies Eastlake and Fitzgerald will be working with Agent Rodgers. Allee, you are with deputies Horton and Jackson. Booth, Knight and deputy Smith. Agent Lynns and Sheriff Wyatt will be here at headquarters with me. Ok? Good. Now, you three will be searching here." Penning said to Rodgers, Eastlake, and Fitzgerald as he pointed out the area on the map.

As soon as everyone knew what they were going to be doing, Penning sent them off, "Ok people I want you to be careful out there. Does everyone have a two-way radio? Good. You are all to check in. Often. Remember our man is armed. We are operating under the assumption that he does have Dr. Brennan and possibly up to four other women. So keep that in mind. Any questions? No? OK. Lets get a move on it then." With that said the three search teams headed out to their assigned areas.

After about four hours of fruitless searching all three teams were called back to the temporary headquarters to regroup and rest as three new search teams would pick up the search were the previous teams had left off.

"Agent Booth the warehouse is back that way and so is the rendevous point. The next group will be waiting for as to meet up with them, and we need to get over there." Deputy Smith said as he pointed back over his shoulder. But Booth just ignored the man and continued to walk in the apposite direction of where Smith was pointing.

Forty-five minutes and several angry calls from Penning later. Booth was still searching.

"Agent Booth that was the sheriff, My boss, who just called us in. Agent Booth I cannot afford to lose my job. And why am I the only one who is answering their radio? Do you guys even have them turned on?" Smith questioned with a little frustration as he clipped his radio back on his belt.

Kory came up behind the deputy and put a friendly hand on his shoulder, "The woman that we are looking for is Booth's partner and good friend. We would really appreciate your help, but if you need to go back to save your job, then you should go. You have stuck with a lot longer then we had any right to ask. But as for Booth and me we are going to stay out here and continue looking."

"Well I guess I could always get a job at my brothers pet clinic, cleaning out the kennels if I do get fired. I know if it were a good friend of mine that was missing like this, I would be doing anything and everything in my power to find 'em."

Kory gave Smith's shoulder a gentile squeeze and smiled at him, "Thank you." She than walked ahead of him to catch up with the other Agent, "Booth? Do . . . "

"Shhh"

Kory stopped talking when Booth hushed her. Smith approached them and was about to ask why they had stopped when Kory waved her hand at him to stay quiet.

All three just stood there and waited for whatever it was that had Booth so alert. Then they heard it. It was someone or something moving around just a few feet to their left. Booth waved them forward as they snuck up on whatever it was that was moving around out there.

Slowly and quietly they made their way through the trees and under brush. When they got to where the sound was coming from they saw a man picking up some sort of metal and hauling it into an underground cellar. The man looked to be in his mid thirties, about five-eleven, with short brown hair. This man fit the description of the kidnaper. Booth's heart began to race, _'this could be the guy. Bones could be close, really close. Please, god, just let her be OK, or let her at least be alive.' _

Booth signaled Smith to go to the left of the man and circle around, then singed for Knight to go striate ahead as he went to the right. Knight and Smith nodded that they under stood and started to move out.

Once everyone was in their assigned positions Booth stood up with his gun drawn and shouted, "This is the FBI, drop the pipe and put your hands on your head." The man did drop the pipe that he was holding, but instead of putting his had hands on his head he run away from Booth and striate for the deputy. Smith jumped out and grabbed the man, but the man pushed and twisted away from the deputy making Smith lose his balance and his grip on the man. Smith fell and twisted his ankle, he tried to get up, but he just cried out and fell back down holding his ankle rocking back and forth.

Booth tackled the man and they fought for a moment or two. Kory ran full tilt to backup Booth, but just before she reached them the man got away once again and was running away. Booth jumped up and stared to run after him.

"Booth! Smith." Kory shouted, Booth stopped and turned to look at her, she pointed to the deputy who was still holding his ankle. Booth could see he was obviously in a lot of pain. Booth hesitated for a moment, unsure if he should stay or if he should go after the man. If this was the man they were looking for, and he got away, they might never find Bones alive, and he could live with himself if that happened, and Smith was not seriously hurt.

"Stay with him and call for backup." Booth shouted then ran in the same direction as the man had.

"Booth, wait, you can't go after him alone. Booth come back! Booth!" Kory continued to shout, but Booth was moving fast and soon could no longer hear Kory.

After twenty minutes of running and seeing no sign of the man Booth stopped and tried to listen and look for any tracks the man might have left behind. Booth found a small piece of torn cloth on a bush he walked over to it to get a better look. He knelt to pick it up when he heard a twig snap behind him. He tried to turn round but there was a blinding pain on the right side of his head then everything went black.

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Sorry for the cliff hanger, but I'm having a little bit of writers block. I premise to try my best to get past this and post soon. Again sorry.

Please tell me what you think.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: See chapter one

A/N I hope this turned out all right. I'm not sure I'm happy this chapter, but I thought I would post it anyway. Again thank you so much for all your reviews.

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**Chapter Twelve**

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**12:07 P.M. Wednesday**

**Location: Unknown**

After hiking for more then five hours Jodee insisted that they stop and rest for more then just a few short minutes. Though they did have to stop several times in the past five hours so Brennan could catch her breath, they would only rest for two or three minutes at a time before moving on again.

Brennan was less then pleased with the lack of progress they were making because of her inability to keep up. Even with the terrain not being all that easy to navigate at times, they should've already been at least three or four miles along, but they were only two miles from where they had started.

Jodee pulled out some breakfast bar from the overnight bag she had taken from the cabin, and handed them out to Linda and Tempe before getting one for herself.

"We should get going." Tempe said after they had all finished eating.

"No. Let's stay here a few more minutes."Jodee protested.

"Yes let's stay. You still look so pale."Added Linda as she patted Tempe's arm with a pleading look.

"If we stay in one place very long, we run the risk of being found by our abductor." At hearing that last part Linda and Jodee both gave an inadvertent shiver of fear.

"I don't think two or three more minutes will make a difference." Jodee insisted.

"I'm feeling a lot better now that I have eaten and rested." And surprisingly enough she really was feeling better.

Tempe then reached out and rested her hand on Linda's shoulder and looked at Jodee "I know you are worried about me and I really appreciate that, but you shouldn't be worrying about me. I'll be fine. What you need to keep your energy focused on is getting out of this forest and finding help. As long as you keep going then I will keep going." Tempe said hoping her little pep talk would convince them that they should move on. She wasn't very good at pep talks, but she had picked up a thing or two for Booth over the course of their partnership. So she didn't think she did too badly.

Tempe stood up and started to grab for her old bag when Linda snatched it up, "I'll carry this. You don't need to."

Slowly Jodee stood up and grabbed the overnight bag, she heaved a defeated sigh, "Ok, so which way do we go now?"

Tempe pulled out her pad that she had her handmade map on, from the smaller bag. She studied it for a minute then pointed ahead of them and a little to the left. "I think that is the way we should go."

After walking in silence for fifteen minutes Tempe thought she heard something, she stopped and tried to see if she could hear it again. Jodee rushed to her side clearly thinking that Brennan was in need of some kind of help. Tempe waved her hand at Jodee indicating that she was fine, then she signaled for Jodee and Linda to listen.

They all heard it then, and whatever it was, was moving fast toward them. All three women rushed to find cover.

They were crouched down in some near by bushes. Tempe was looking out through the leaves of the bush, when she caught a glimpse of a tall man in a dark-blue wind breaker with bold yellow letters on the back, run by. She thought she saw FBI on the back of the jacket, but she didn't see it clearly enough to be sure. Then Tempe's heart began to race as she recognized the way the man ran and carried himself, "Booth" she whispered to herself.

She stood up and was going to call out to him when Linda grabbed her arm, "What are you doing?" She urgently whispered and looked at Tempe as if she were crazy or at least too sick to know what she was doing. Tempe pulled her arm away, "I know that man he's a friend of mine, he's with the FBI." She explained in a rush as her eyes darted back and forth trying to find him, but he was gone. Tempe started to jog -as her body would not allow her to move any faster then that, in the same direction that Booth had gone just moments earlier.

After a few minutes of not seeing Booth Brennan started to cry a little, feeling a bit panicked that she would not be able to catch up with him and that she and her two companions would have to spend yet another night out in this forest while being hunted by some psycho.

Tempe almost fell as the ground beneath her feet started slant down. As so as she regained her balance, she looked up from the ground just in time to see her abductor hit Booth over the head with the butt of his gun. The man then pointed his gun at Booth. Tempe's heart froze when she saw this. _'I need to do something. There has to be some . . . ' _

Suddenly an idea came to her, she deepened her voice, so it would sound as masculine as possible, "This is the FBI put your weapon down and step away from the agent." The man's head snapped up and darted back and forth trying to locate where the voice was coming from, but was unable to. Tempe and her two companions were well hidden behind the trees and bushes. When the man didn't make a move to do ether of the things she had ordered him to do, she continued, but this time a little more forcefully, "Put your weapon down and step away from the man. If you do not put down your weapon, we will be forced to shoot. Now put your weapon down and step away!"

The man seemed to listen this time he slowly lowered his gun, but at the last second he spun around and ran away. Tempe was about to sigh in relief when she heard a loud pop behind her. She spun around ready to defend herself against whatever threat was behind her and to see where the noise was coming from.

What Tempe saw was Jodee throwing little round balls with gunpowder in them up against a rock. They would explode when they hit the heard surface. Tempe gave a quick glance back to where Booth and the man were, but only Booth was there the man was nowhere to be seen.

Tempe held her hand to her chest, trying to calm her self and slow her heart rate. She looked back to Jodee and gave her weird little smile. Jodee slowly made her way to Brennan nervously babbling with Linda close behind her, "Ithoughtifwedidn't,youknow . . . followthrough,makeitsoundlikewewereshootingathim.Hewouldcomebackandknowthatweweretryingtofoolhim." Jodee was talking so fast that she was running her words together, and Tempe was only able to understand every other word.

"What . . . " Tempe was cut off by Jodee, again she was talking very fast, "Theyweremyson's.AfriendboughtthemforhimbutItookthemawayfromhim.He'sonlyfive.Thatmantookthemfrommeandputtheminhisdesk..." Jodee continued babble as Tempe stepped forward and gently grabbed her arm, "It's ok. That was a smart thing you did. I'm glad you thought of it."

Jodee instantly stopped talking. Tempe was anxious to get down to where Booth was and see if he's ok or not, but at the some time she did not want to leave Jodee while she was so unsettled.

"I have to go see if he is hurt. Will you be Ok?" Tempe asked. Jodee nodded her head. Tempe hardly waited for Jodee to reply before she bolted down the hill to Booth. She was running on adrenalin so when she fell to her knees next to Booth she hardly felt the pain ripping through her side.

"Booth? Booth can you hear me?" Tempe call to him, but he didn't move. She shook him gently, still nothing, then she shook him a little harder, but he just wouldn't respond. That scarred Tempe more then she'd like to admit.

Tempe gently moved Booth's head so she could see where the man had hit him. There was a huge gash on the side of his head and it was bleeding heavily, she quickly checked the rest of him for any other injuries, but didn't find any. While she was checking him, she noted that he still had both his weapons. She took his back up piece from his ankle holster and put it in the waist band of her pants then pulled her shirt down over it.

Soon Linda and Jodee had made it to where Tempe and Booth were. Linda lightly tapped Brennan's shoulder, Tempe looked up at her, "I need something to stop the bleeding."

Linda dropped the bag she was holding and rummaged through it to find something. She came out with a pocket knife she then grabbed a blanket from the overnight bag, she then cut off one of the corners. Linda handed Tempe the piece of cloth. Tempe pressed the cloth firmly to the gash on Booth's head, "Booth? Seeley? Wake up we . . . "all three women's heads shot up when they heard something move close by. Thankfully it was just an animal.

"We need to get out of here. He still might come back." Jodee stated as she scanned the area cautiously.

Tempe nodded her head, "Your right, but I need to find something to keep this cloth secure while we are moving him. Linda can you hand me the little blue box out of my bag?" Linda handed Tempe the now mostly depleted first-aid kit from the bag. Tempe looked through the kit and found an ace bandage. Linda cut another piece off the blanket, Booth had already bled through the other cloth. They put the fresh cloth on the wound before wrapping up his head with the ace bandage. Tempe wanted to clean the wound out, but they didn't have the time or enough water to do it with.

Tempe locked her arm under Booths', "Ok let's go."

Linda rushed forward and pulled Tempe away from Booth, "You can't lift him."

Jodee then stepped forward and put her arm under one of Booths' as she got ready to lift him, "She's right you'll just hurt yourself worse. Just let Linda and I move him. OK?"

Tempe gave in, "Ok, but I'll carry the bags then." she picked up the bag Linda had dropped then tried to take the other one from Jodee, but Jodee wouldn't let her take it, "This bag is too heavy I'll carry it."

Tempe still held onto the bag, "No, You can't drag him and carry the bag. You will hurt yourself and then we will have three people down who can't defend themselves properly if that man finds us before we can get help. I'll be fine, so please just give me the bag." Jodee reluctantly let go of the bag.

Linda and Jodee struggled with dragging Booth for more then two hours til they found a suitable hiding place. As so as they put Booth down Jodee run back over their path and covered their tracks.

Tempe had long since run out of steam her legs felt like jell-O, her side was on fire, she was woozy and her vision was graying a little around the edges. She wobbled a little on her feet before she fell to her knees. Linda quickly made her way over to her. Tempe was swaying and there was very little color in her face at all. Linda lightly pushed Tempe so she would lie down, then touched her hand to Tempe's forehead, "You fever has gotten worse. How are you feeling?"

Tempe shifted to get more comfortable, and gave Linda a wobbly half smile, "Like I've been shot."

Linda was about to say something when they heard Booth groan. Tempe tried to sit up so she could go to him, but Linda pushed her back down, "No. You just lie down. I'll take care of him." Tempe relaxed and laid back down. Linda smiled at her, "He means a lot to you doesn't he?"

"He's my partner." Tempe replied then closed her eyes. Linda went and sat down by Booth and started to clean out the wound.

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So was that chapter Ok, tell me what you think.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: See chapter one

A/N Wow more than 150 reviews I'm so happy. Thank so much for your feed back. It really makes me want to write more, which is really good for me right now because I'm having a lot of trouble with writers block. I know how I what to end this fic. I'm just having trouble with coming up with what happens between now and the end. So please be patient with me. And sorry for the mistakes.

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**Chapter Thirteen**

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**11:44 P.M. Wednesday**

**Half mile south of search **

**area: One **

"Booth, Come in. Booth please respond. Ahhh, come on Booth answer me." Kory through her hands up in frustration. She and Smith had been waiting there a minute or two hoping that Booth would come back or at least pick up his radio. She gave up on trying to get a hold of Booth and decided to switch channels on her walkie talkie to call the temporary headquarters, "This is search team one calling headquarters, come in. Over."

"Where have you been?" Came the vary angry voice of her brother. Kory winced, _'boy am I in for it now." _

"We need a medical lift and . . . "

Penning cut in, not angry this time, but worried, "Are you all right? Are you hurt?"

"Yes, I'm fine. It's Smith we got into an altercation with our suspect. Smith hurt his ankle while trying to subdue the suspect. I can't tell if it's broken or if it's just sprained." She explained. Smith tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to something shining in the sun light about five yards away. She stood up and went over to investigate.

"Where is the suspect now?" Penning asked as she made her way over to the object, "He got away Booth has gone after him."

"He did what!"

Kory flinched and jerked the walkie away from her head, the angry voice was back along with yelling, "He went after the suspect."

"You mean he left an injured member of his team to pursue and armed and dangerous suspect on his own, is that what you are telling me. Get him on this channel now!" Penning demanded.

Kory took a deep breath and let it out slowly, she dreaded to tell her brother that she wasn't able to contact Booth, "He didn't just leave Smith to fend for himself. I'm here with him and we are both armed and able to defend ourselves if need be."She stated defensively, then hesitated, "And well, you see, I've tried but I can't get a hold of Booth."

"What do you mean you can't get a hold of him? And Why?" Penning demanded in the same menacing tone of voice he would use on her when they were younger and he had caught her going through his stuff. And just like when she was a kid and he would talk to her like that, she wanted to tune him out or in this case turn the walkie talkie off, but she didn't, "I mean I have called him on his two-way but he's not answering. I don't know . . . oh this is not good." She had found out what Smith had seen shining. It was Booth's walkie she picked it up and found that the little gadget that had clip the radio to his belt had broke clean off.

"What? What's 'not good'?" Penning asked, a little worried.

Kory held up the walkie to show Smith, he looked her, shook his head and gave her an 'I-hope-this-doesn't-end-up-getting-Booth-or-some-one-else-killed' look. She nodded her head in agreement.

"I think I know why Booth hasn't been answering my calls."

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**2:43 P.M. Wednesday**

**Location: Unknown **

Booth was slowly waking up he heard running water near by from a creek or river and two feminine voices talking, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. He tried to open his eyes, but was hit by screaming pain in his head, he groaned.

Booth sensed someone sit down next to him and start to unwrap something from around his head. Then he felt a horrible sting pain as someone cleaning out the cut on the side of his head.

He tried to pull his head away but he just could not make his body do what he wanted. Booth blacked out again after that. The next thing he knew something cool and wet was put on his forehead. Booth opened his eyes then blink a few times to clear his vison. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye, he turned his head slowly to see what it was. It was a woman with long auburn hair. She had her back to him.

"Bones?"he mumbled to himself. He slowly reached out and touched her arm. The woman jumped away from him, frightened. Booth got a good look at her face, it wasn't Bones, but he knew who she was. "Your Linda Prat right?" He asked as he sat up, he had an attack of nausea and dizziness, but it soon passed.

She nodded her head, a second woman walked up behind Linda. He recognized her too, "Jodee Wright? Where are we?"

She smiled at him, "I have on idea where we are, but I do know that we are safe from him as long as we stay hidden." He had this confused look on his face, and was looking around as if searching for someone. Jodee tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to something behind him, "She's over there."

Booth jumped up, but nearly fell right back down as the world seemed to spin and tilt around him. Jodee instantly grabbed Booth's arm to help steady him. As so as he got his balance, he smiled his thanks to Jodee. He then pulled away from Jodee and rushed to Bones.

Bones was asleep, and saw that someone had covered with a blanket. He didn't really want to wake her he just wanted to see for himself that she was really here and that she was really alive. The tight choking feeling he had around his heart since the moment he found out that she was missing, seemed to lose its hold relief and elation took its place. He brushed her auburn hair away from her face, he found dried blood caked in her hair. The joy he had felt at finding Bones alive soon melted away and was replaced with worry and fear as he took in the battered and weak appearance of his partner.

She was so pale except for the two dots of color on her cheeks that showed that she had a fever, she also had a huge bump on the side of her head, there were little scratches all over her. Booth noticed where Tempe had rubbed her wrists raw while trying to free herself, but they were now scabbed over.

Booth had a flash memory of the seeing Bones getting shot. Booth jerked the blanket off and pulled up her shirt so he could see her wound. He worried that she had been injured for more seriously than he had originally thought.

The sudden movement startled Tempe awake, she grabbed Booth by the wrist and stopped him before he could peel off the dirty and blood-encrusted bandage. Booth's shot his head up to meet her gaze. Her eyes where glassy from the fever and she seemed to have trouble focusing. She tugged her shirt back in to place and sat up, she looked as if she were ready to cry.

Tempe grabbed Booth and gave him a hug, "Booth? Are you Ok?" She mumbled into his shoulder. He pushed back from her so he could see her face, he was a little surprised that she was asking him if _he_ was OK, he just smiled at her, then pulled her back to him and held her, "Yeah I'm OK."

After a few minutes' Booth decided that they should get moving soon. Booth moved away from Bones, but before he got up he gave her hand a gentle squeeze, just to assure himself once more that she was really there. He scanned the area then he looked at the two women that had quietly been sitting by the creek giving Booth and Bones some privacy. He looked confused, Bones saw this and asked, "What's wrong?"

Jodee and Linda saw Booth stand up so they decided to make their way back over to them.

Booth glanced at them as they approached, "Where are the other two? Jennifer Murphy and Cyndie Winger?"

"They're dead." Jodee stated then began to tell Booth everything she had told Brennan the night before. Booth nodded his head grimly when she had finished. It sent a slice of fear to his heart to think that, the man that had kidnaped Bones could have easily killed her too. It also made him furious to think what these women had to endure while being held captive by that man.

Booth grabbed for his radio only to find that it was gone, he cursed under his breath, then looked around with a deep sigh, "We should get out of here. There should be a search team not too, far from here. We might be able to meet up with them. And if we keep alert I don't think we will have any trouble running in to that SOB." Booth said as he went over to Bones to help her up his hand collided with his back up gun tucked in the waistband of her pants, she quickly grabbed the gun before he could, he shot her an accusing look, she just rolled her eyes and refused to let him take the gun from her. Booths' arm was still around her waist as he gave her a tight little squeeze and smiled at her, "It's good to have you back Bones."

She smiled in triumph thinking she had won.

"But I will be getting my gun back you know."

Bones gave him a dirty look as they started hike their way out.

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So what did you think? Where Bones and Booth OOC?

Please review.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: See chapter one

A/N I know this seems like it jumps from where I left off in the last chapter, but you didn't miss anything I will explain what happened. Again thank you so much for all your reviews. I think(and I stress Think) there will only be three more chapters their might be more their might be less. Don't you just love Cullin. He may be tough on Booth and Bones sometimes, but he's a really good guy. I always liked him, but after 'Graft in the girl' I Love him. You have to respect a guy like that.

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**Chapter Fourteen**

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**11:05 A.M. Thursday**

**Washington DC**

**Washington Memorial**

**Hospital: Room 427**

"Sweety is there anything I can get for you?"Angela asked as she fussed over Tempe. Angela seemed to have glued herself to Tempe's bed side since Tempe was life flighted to the hospital the day before.

Booth had also flown in with Tempe. Penning had wanted to rip Booth a new one, but a paramedic had grabbed him first and told Penning that Booth had nasty concession and needed to go to the hospital and get checked out. So Penning had decided to put off the reprimand and yelling til Booth was feeling a little better.

"Ang I'm fine I just need some rest now."She smiled at her friend. It felt good to be home and to have friends and co-workers that cared form you. Jack, Zach, and Dr. Goodmen all had come by earlier to wish her well and see if she needed anything, even Cullen had come by to welcome her back and to say that he was glad that she was alright.

Booth had stayed with her for most of the night, but some time before dawn the doctor had ordered him to go to his room and get some rest. After Booth was released he had made his way back to her room. When Zach, Hodgins, Goodmen and Cullin had left Angela decided to go to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Booth and Tempe just sat there peacefully enjoying each other company when an Agent Judy Wilton showed up and told them that they had caught the man that gotten away from Booth and the others in the woods.

Booth stood up and gave Tempe's hand a gentle squeeze before he left with the other Agent to interrogate the suspect. Agent Wilton had also told them that had found two bodies in a shallow grave not more then five hundred yards away from the cabin Tempe had told them about. Though they had not been able to positively ID the two bodies they were reasonably sure that they were the remains of Jennifer Murphy and Cyndie Winger.

Angela sat down next to the hospital bed she just kept watching her friend as if Tempe would disappear if she looked away for too long. As they sat there in silence Tempe began to think back to what happened the day before.

They had only hiked for an hour or two before they were able to find the search team Booth had been talking about. They then had two helicopters come in. One had taken Jodee, Linda and a local deputy who had injured his ankle some how to the Condon Hospital. The other helicopter took Booth and Tempe strait the Washington Memorial in DC. Cullin had been waiting for them when they arrived, apparently Cullin had heard what Booth had done and was not happy with him. Cullin had looked about ready to wring Booth's neck, but he seemed to have taken pity on his concussed agent and only gave Booth a miner reprimand.

After Tempe had gotten out of surgery and put in a room she was told that Jodee and Linda where both fine, they were being released from the hospital and that they were so to be reunited with their families soon. Tempe was so happy for them she hoped that both women would be able to get past what that psycho had done to them and live a happy life.

Now that the FBI has apprehended their abductor it seem that the trial would not be too long in coming. Tempe dreaded facing that man again, but at the same time could not wait to see him pay for his crimes.

Tempe was pulled from her musings when her doctor came in to check on her and give her some medication.

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**11:27 A.M. Thursday**

**FBI Headquarters**

Booth stood next to Kory as they looked through the two way mirror into the interrogation room. Penning and Isaac were drilling the suspect for information. They were hoping for a confession, but so far were having no luck.

Booth wanted nothing more then to go in there and make the SOB talk, "So what's his name and how much information do we have?"

Kory heaved a sigh and turned to Booth, "His name is Jeremy Kuzach. He has a rap sheet of petty crimes a mile long, but nothing in his history indicates any violence. This just doesn't make any sense."

Booth turned away from the mirror and gave Kory his full attention, "What are you saying? You think this isn't our guy?"

Kory rolled her eyes and huffed in frustration, "I don't know what I'm saying. All I know is that something about him just doesn't seem right. I know he's the guy we fought with in the field. But still...something's not right."

Booth brought his focused back to Jeremy Kuzach, "Yeah, I know what you mean. I have the same feeling." Booth had wanted for this man to be the one they were looking for so badly that he had made himself overlook the fact that Jeremy just didn't fit with what they know of Brennan's kidnaper. Now that Kory seemed to feel the same way he knew that he could no longer ignore his misgivings, "What about the DNA tests?"

Kory shook her head, "Not back yet, I guess the lab is back logged again."

"Fingerprints from the cabin? Were they a mach?"

"There were no fingerprints the cabin was wiped clean."

"What about Jodee and Linda where they able to ID him as their abductor?"

"No the doctors are saying that Prat is not emotionally stable enough to handle seeing him again so soon. And as for Wright she had an allergic reaction to one of the meds they gave her. She's just too sick right now to help us and the some goes for Dr. Brennan."

Booth leaned his shoulder up against the wall. His head was pounding again and he was beginning to feel a little dizzy, "So where do we go from here?"

"Well maybe we can start with the cabin and who owns it." said a voice from behind them. Booth and Kory spun around to find Judy standing in the doorway, neither of them had heard her come in.

Booth gave her a charming smile, "So who owns the cabin?"

The petite blond opened the file in her hand, "Well, the cabin along with the fifty acres that surround it are owned by Arthur Kuzach. A self employed financial consultant from Perrysville Virginia, but he works here in DC. And he also happens to be the cousin to Jeremy Kuzach. Arthur Kuzach inherited the land and cabin from his uncle, A Joseph Peldair, ten years ago."

"Perrysville didn't we pass by that town on our way to Condon?" Kory questioned.

"I'm sure you did. It's only forty-five miles from Condon." Judy said as she closed the file and tapped it on her leg. Kory stepped forward and reached for the file, Judy handed it over. Kory flipped through it then she frowned, "What is Brad doing with this? Do you know who he is sending to talk to this Arthur Kuzach guy?"

Just then Penning walked in the room with Allee right behind him, "Well I thought I would send Allee and Hobbes to Perrysville and Judy and I would go to the Kuzachs' office here in DC."

Kory gave Penning a pleading look, "Come on Brad, please, let me go with you or Isaac. I've been with this case from before you were. Please Brad."

"You know Brad. I think taking Kory with me to Perrysville isn't a bad idea. And she has a point she has been with this case the longest. And you and I both know that Hobbes has no business talking to people out in the field. He has no patients and no tact what so ever." Allee argued on behalf of Knight.

Penning gave a defeated sigh, "Alright Kory you go with Isaac. Hobbes will work with Lynns and his team."

Booth shoved himself away from the wall, "And what am I suppose to be doing? Sit here and do nothing? If your still mad about yesterday. I'm sorry I know I was in the wrong, but I can still help with this case. I'd like to go with you to Kuzachs' office."

Booth had noticed whenever Penning was stressed or frustrated he would pinched the bridge of his nose, like he was doing now.

"Booth have you looked in a mirror lately. You have a bandage the size of New York on the side of your head and you look like you haven't slept in a week. It would be irresponsible of me to let you out in the field in your current state. In fact you shouldn't even be here, you should be at home resting. If Cullin knew you were here and that I was letting you stay he would have my butt. So no your not going with me. Your going to stay here and gather whatever information you can to help your team to solve this case." Penning tone left no room for argument.

Booth reluctantly conceded and began to make some calls to the lab and do some other leg work. He had to admit he was not feeling his best and if something were to happen to someone because he was not on the top of his game... well he would never be able to forgive himself.

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I know, I know there was a whole lot of nothin' going on in this chapter. But what can I say this all I have for right now. It will pick up in the next chapter though.

What did you think?


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: See chapter one

A/N I know that this chapter starts with my OC's and not the main characters. I'm not fond of this kind thing where it focuses on the OC's for so long, but I had to do it this way to make my story work. I hope you don't mind too much. Thank you all so much for your feedback.

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**Chapter Fifteen**

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**1:09 P.M. Thursday**

**Perrysville Virginia**

Kory and Isaac found themselves in a beautiful neighborhood. It was the kind of place where the upper middle class came to raise their two point three kids. It was peaceful and safe or at least safer.

Finally they located the house they were looking for and pulled into the driveway. It was a big ranch style house with deep green shutters and a beautiful wraparound porch with flowers hanging off the railings and roof. Kory liked the house she would like to one day live in a place like this with her husband (whoever he might end up being) and kids (when she has them) it was a wonderful place to raise a family.

Kory brought her thoughts back to the case as they got out of the car and made their way to the front door. Isaac rang the doorbell. While they waited, Kory scanned the neighborhood looking for any possible threats. She didn't think there was anything to be concerned about, but you could never be too sure. Other then a few children riding bikes and playing in the street, all was quiet.

The door opened and Isaac smiled at the woman in the doorway. He knew that his size often intimidated people so he liked to put them at ease by making sure his body language was nonthreatening. The woman smiled back. She was a pretty blond with sea green eyes of average build and height Kory guessed her to be in her early thirties. The woman had a cute little baby about eight months old on her hip. The baby had his mothers coloring but not her looks.

Isaac and Kory held up their badges, "Hi I'm Agent Allee and this is Agent Knight. We're with the FBI. We'd like to talk to Mr. Arthur Kuzach."

The woman looked confused, "He's out of town right now." She then became worried, "Has something happened to him? Is he in trouble?"

Kory smiled to reassure the woman, "No, No, we would just like to talk to him about some property he owns just outside of Condon. Do you know the place? Mrs . . . ?"

"Kuzach, Claudia Kuzach. And yes I know the place you are talking about there's also a cabin up there. My husband inherited it from an uncle on his mother's side I think. But I'm not sure about that though."

Isaac then asked, "Have you ever been to the cabin or to the property?"

"No, I haven't. I'm not much of a nature girl."

"What about your husband, has he visited the place recently?"

Claudia looked at them suspiciously, "Not since before we were married five years ago. Why are you asking me all these questions? What happened? And what does this have to do with Arthur?"

"Could we come in and sit down?" Isaac asked.

Claudia shifted the baby on her hip as she opened the door the rest of the way and waved them in.

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**1:47 P.M. Thursday**

**Perrysville Virginia**

Isaac and Kory got back in the car and started to make their way back to DC. Isaac took his eyes of the road and glanced Kory, "So?"

Kory looked up from her notes, "I don't know? Mrs. Kuzach seemed to know anything about what her husband does when he is not with her. I mean almost every question we had she answered with, 'I'm not sure, I don't know, he might have I would have to check with him, I guess, maybe,' or my all time favorite 'I have no idea.' How could you be married to someone for that long and not know what they were doing? But the thing is. I don't think she was lying to us. I think she honestly doesn't know. What is your take on this?"

"The interview or the whole case?"

"Both."

"I don't think she was lying either. I do think something there is not right, but I'm not sure if it has any thing to do with this case. All I do know is that my gut is telling me that Jeremy Kuzach is not the guy we are looking for. The only thing I think he is guilty of is making moonshine."

"What about Brad? Does he think Jeremy Kuzach is our guy?"

"No. He feels the same way we do about him."

Kory nodded her head then pulled out her cell phone, "I'm going to call Booth and tell him about our little interview and see if he has found out anything new."

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**11:06 P.M. Thursday**

**Washington Memorial**

**Hospital Room: 427 **

Booth sat in the chair Angela had been evicted from two hours earlier. Tempe had ordered her to go home and get some rest before she exhausted herself further. Her friend had been so wonderful to her, getting her anything she needed. Tempe hoped that her friend was able to relax and get some sleep. She knew that Angela fully intended to come back bright and early tomorrow morning to spend the day with her.

Tempe heard Booth shift in the chair to get more comfortable. She looked at him and smiled she liked having Booth with her. Even if he was just sitting there silently doing nothing. I was just the fact that he was there looking out for her. She didn't know why it meant so much to her that he was there. It just did. It's not like she didn't value and appreciate all the things that Angela had done for her, but some how it was different with Booth. She couldn't explain it. Not even to herself.

Tempe studied Booth as he sat in the chair dozing he looked so tired, worn out and beat up. She knew that she should send him home so that he could rest. She just couldn't bring herself tell him to go home.

They were content just to sitting there listening to the sound of the hospital. Tempe smiled again when she remembered how Booth had tried to fool her into thinking that everything was all right with the case. But she had known that something was wrong the moment Booth had come into her room. Booth had tried so heard to hide it from her. When she had seen a police officer guarding her door Booth, knew he could no longer deny that something was wrong. He finally explained that the man that they had arrested was most likely not her kidnapper and that they really didn't think she was in any real danger but they wanted to err on the side of cation. Thus, the guard.

Tempe was pulled from her thoughts when a cute red headed nurse walked in and tapped Booth on his shoulder, "Sir? I'm sorry but you have to leave now. It is way past visitor hours. I've let you stay as long as I could." Booth hesitated as he stood up he clearly didn't want to go, but she knew he also didn't want to upset her by arguing with the nurse.

Tempe grabbed Booth's hand to stop him from leaving, "What if I told my doctor that I would like him to stay?" Booth seemed a little surprised to hear the pleading tone in Tempe's voice. Tempe was a little surprised herself, but she wanted Booth to stay and she knew he wanted to stay as well.

The nurse gave them a sympathetic smile, "I'm sorry Ms. Brennan. I can't, doctor Lynch is about to make his rounds and he is a stickler for the rules. I'll tell you what though," She was looking at Booth now, "If you go to the cafeteria and stay there for an hour or so that will give Dr. Lynch plenty of time to make his round. Then when he is gone I will sneak you back in here. How does that sound?"

Booth gave her one of his charming smiles, "That sound great. Thank you." He turned to Tempe, "I guess I'll see you in an hour or so." He gave her hand a light squeeze before he let go.

"Get something to eat while you're there, why don't you?" she called out to him as he left.

He smiled and waved to her, "I'll do that."

The nurse followed him out and shut the door behind her. Tempe turned on her right side with her back to the door. She closed her eyes and started to doze. She heard some noise outside her door then she heard it open. She was so tired, and she really didn't want to turn around to face her doctor. She figured that if he wanted to talk her he would just have to come to her. She heard him do something over by the door before he walked up behind her.

The hair on the back of her neck stood up her eyes shot open and her chest squeezed with fear so hard that she could barely breathe as she heard the terrifying ly familiar voice softly say, "What a waste, we could have been so good together." Then a hand touched her cheek.

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I know I know a cliffy. But what can, I say I got drunk on the power that only an author can have over their story and could not help myself. I'm evil I know, but please don't hate me.

Please tell me what you think.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: See chapter one

A/N Well this is it, my last chapter. I hope you like it. Oh and here's a heads up, take a look at the time under each subheading it will help you to understand what's going on better. Thank you, thank you, thank you all so very, very much for all your wonderful reviews.

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**Chapter Sixteen**

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**11:07 P.M. Thursday**

**FBI headquarters**

Brad Penning sat in the bullpen looking over the video footage of the Jeremy Kuzach interrogation.It wasa dead end. No matter how you looked at it, no matter how much they all wanted this man to be the serial kidnapper and murderer that just wasn't the case. Penning turned off the T.V. then stood up and stretched. Penning decided to call it a night and go home he grabbed his suit coat off the back of his chair and headed out.

He was just about to his car when his cell phone rang, "Penning."

"Hello, this John Libby from the lab. I have the test results you were waiting for." Not one for mincing words John got strait to the point, "Jeremy Kuzach's DNA does not match."

Penning sighed, "Yeah I figured as much. Well I guess it's back to squar one."

"Well maybe not. DNA shows that your kidnapper is related to Jeremy Kuzach."

"You mean like a brother?"

"No. Not that closely related more like an uncle or first a cousin."

"Ok. Is that everything?"

"Yep that's it."

"Thanks John." Penning said then hung up his phone. Penning then called the New York FBI office so that they could see if Arthur Kuzach really was there. He also called Wilton and related to her everything Libby had told him so she could fallow up on the information. Judy was right on top of it, even before Penning had gotten off the phone she was already making sure that Prat and Wright were well guarded.

He got into his car then tried to call Booth, but only got his voice mail. He put his car into gear and drove out of the FBI parking garage. As he pulled up to the exit he decided to go to the hospital and tell Booth in person what the lab tech had just told him and also to get extra security on Brennan.

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**11:09 P.M. Thursday**

**Washington Memorial **

**Hospital: Cafeteria**

Booth sat with file after file laid out on the table in front. All he wanted to do was to find the man that had put his partner in this hospital and make him pay. Booth knew in his gut that Jeremy Kuzach was not the man whom he was looking for and he was well aware of what that would mean for Brennan and the other two women.

When Booth's vison began blur, he sat back and squeezed him eyes shut. He was so tired he felt as if he could easily fall asleep standing up. Booth leaned forward and held his head in his hands. He had such a headache and it just would not go away.

Booth tensed as he felt a presence behind him, "Seeley? Hey man what happened to your head? Are you all right?"

Booth was shocked to find that it was his brother standing behind him, "Hey Jerod, what are you doing in DC? And what are you doing in scrubs and a work badge for this hospital?"

"Well if you would ever bother to check your phone messages or go home for that matter you would know." Jerod answered as he covertly checked out Seeley's bandaged head. Booth gave his brother a just-answer-my-question look. Jerod rolled his eyes and sat in the chair across from Booth, "It's a temporary transfer. I'm helping out an old med. school teacher of mine. He's the hospital director here. Anyway his chief resident moved away suddenly leaving him in a bind. Long story short he called me to see if I could fill in as chief resident till he finds someone permanent."

Jerod idly looked at the files in front of him, "So what's this all about?"

"It's just a case I'm working on." Booth answered off handedly

"Is this case what happened to your head?"

Booth ignored the question and look at Jerod as if something just dawned on him, "Where are you staying?"

"At your place. Like I said if you ever bothered to go home you would know that. Hey who is that guy?" Jerod asked indicating one of the pictures that was attached to a file.

Booth looked at his brother strangely, "You recognize this man? Arthur Kuzach?"

"I don't know his name, but I saw him here. Who is he?"

A sense of dread fill Booth's chest and settled in his stomach like a led weight, "Here, as in here in the hospital?"

Jerod looked worried and confused, "Yeah. I passed him on my way down here. He was standing just inside the stair well on the forth floor. What's going on? Seeley?"

Booth jumped up from his chair, '_The forth floor? God that's the floor Bones is on!' _he ran for the nearest stair well hoping against hope that Jerod was mistaken and that Bones was in no danger, but his gut told him he needed to get to Bones as soon as passable.

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**11:06 P.M. Thursday**

**Washington Memorial**

**Hospital: Room 427**

Tempe jumped out of the bad and away from the man painfully ripping out her IV in the process. The man ran around the bed and tried to grab her but she was too fast. Tempe seized her rolling bed tray and rammed it into the man's stomach he tripped over a chair that was behind him. The man grunted as the wind was knocked out of him. The man had fallen awkwardly and was now wedged in the corner with the bed tray pinning him down.

Tempe tried to find some sort of weapon but could find none. She then rushed to the door only to find that the man had wrapped a bike chain around the handle and secured to the disability rail. She pulled and tugged on the door any way but it would only open an inch or two. There was a loud scraping noise behind her she saw that the man was making headway on getting himself unstuck. Feeling trapped and helpless she jerked the door as for as it would go and screamed, "Help me somebody. Please somebody help me." Desperation and panic colored her voice.

When yelling didn't seem to get the officer that was supposed to be guarding her or anyone else for that matter to come to her aid she began looking once again for a weapon. She jerked open the cupboard by the door there was nothing of use in there just extra blankets and a plastic pitcher. She was about to slam the cupboard door shut when some thing caught her eye at the very back. She reached for the back of the cupboard and pushed and to her surprise it opened it was a two-way cupboard it lead strait into the hallway.

Tempe instantly chucked the blankets and pitcher off of the shelf and started to shimmy her way through it. She was half way through the cupboard when she heard a loud crash behind her. He had finally freed himself and was now rushing to catch her. Tempe doubled her efforts to get away.

She was almost home free when she felt a hand wrap around her ankle she tried to pull away from him but to no avail. She then started to kick she made solid contact on her second try he grunted and let go. She had been pulling so hard against him that when he let go she instantly dropped. She landed painfully on her shoulder. It jarred her body so badly that it took her breath away.

When Tempe was able to focus again, she saw her guard he was lying on the floor she was not sure if he was alive or not.

The man didn't even try to squeeze through the cupboard. She heard him at the door messing with the chain. Tempe crawled over to the cop, she needed a weapon. She checked to see if the cop was alive she was relieved to find that he was alive he was just out cold. Tempe saw that the officer still had his gun but she couldn't get to it he was lying on it and she was too weak to push the man over to get to it. If she couldn't get his gun well at least, she could use the handcuffs for something.

Tempe ran to the nurses' station she felt that would be best place to find some sort of weapon. Also, she didn't want to put any of the other patients in danger by hiding in one of their rooms. When Tempe made it to the nurses, station she found the nice red headed nurse and another one she had not seen before were both knocked out. Tempe looked around and found a used syringe on the floor. Obviously it had been used to incapacitate the two women and the cop.

Tempe picked up the syringe and she ducked under the desk as she heard the man make his way down the hallway, "Hello? Where are you? Come on pumpkin come out here. I know I was mad at you before but I'm not anymore. I love you. Don't you know that?" When he didn't get an answer he became angry, "You know no one can help you and I will find you. And when I do . . . "

He let the threat hang there. Tempe shuttered as the man made his way closer. Tempe gripped the syringe and tensed getting ready jump the man if he should find her. As she scooted closer to the desk, she spotted a plat in the corner with a big garden stake in it. Tempe was so focused on her new potential weapon that she did not hear the man sneak up.

Out of no where he grabbed her by her gown, it happened so suddenly that Tempe didn't have time to think she just jammed the syringe into his hand. As so as she was free, she made her way the potted plant. The man howled in pain and cursed her as she struggled to pull the stake free. Finally she had it. She wielded it like a baseball bat.

He flung the syringe across the hallway angrily. He was now so enraged that he just charged Tempe regardless of the stake. Tempe ducked away from him and hit him upside his head, before he could recover she hit him again this time much harder. He fell to the floor this time totally unconscious. Not fully trusting that the man was truly knocked out she rush over to the desk where she dropped the handcuffs then put the on the man.

She did not want to be any where near the man so as soon as she cuffed him she scurried away from him until her back hit wall a few feet away. She was dizzy lightheaded and the pain that had mercifully left alone while she was trying to get away was now back with vengeance. She pulled her knees up and rested her head on them not really sure if she wanted to laugh or cry.

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**11:12 P.M. Thursday**

**Washington Memorial**

**Hospital: forth floor**

Booth came charging up the stairs and down the hallway to Bones room. When he got to her room, it was a mess and Bones was nowhere to be found and the cop that was suppose to be standing guard was lying on the floor he quickly checked to see if the man was alive. Booth heard someone behind him he spun around ready to face any threat, but it was only his brother and two hospital security officers. He motioned for the two officers to follow him.

Panic again squeezed his chest as he ran down the hallway. He could not help but to feel that he had once again let Bones down. And if anything were to happen to her he would not be able to live with himself. Just when he thought that all was lost he saw her.

It was the most beautiful sight in the world to him. He rushed over to her. He had to step over the unconscious body of Arthur Kuzach Booth kicked him out of the way with a little more force then was needed before he seized Tempe in a big hug at first she fought him but as so as she realized it was Booth she clung to him like he was the only thing in the word that was keeping her grounded then she started to cry, "you're all right now Bones. It's ok. I'll take care of you I promise."

Jerod rushed around checking on everyone to make sure they were all right. Booth took Bones to get checked out as Penning come in and hauled Arthur Kuzach away.

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After an hour of doctors checking to see if she was all right and the FBI asking questions Tempe was exhausted. She was now in a new room Booth was sitting next to her bed. He was still holding her hand never once had he let her hand go since he had found her. Even when he could no longer keep his eyes open and had fallen asleep he still held her hand.

A warm fuzzy felling settled in her chest as she looked at him. She squeezed his hand and smiled as she herself was starting to drift off to sleep, "Thanks Booth. Thanks for finding me."

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Well what did you think?


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